Market watch: In absence of triggers, bourse continues lethargic run

Benchmark KSE-100 index falls 35.06 points.

KARACHI: In the absence of triggers, volumes continued to remain dismal. Local investors continued to wait and watch ahead of the earnings season, citing political uncertainty and shorter trading hours as reasons for lacklustre activity.

At close, the Karachi Stock Exchange’s (KSE) benchmark 100-share index fell 0.12% or 35.06 points to end at 29,318.06.

“Nishat Power (NPL PA +4.3%) stayed strong with unusual volumes of 2.5 million as it saw crosses on the board. Meanwhile, Engro Foods (EFOODS PA +1.3%) was the highlight of the day over reported institutional buying as investors remain cautiously optimistic over earnings outlook,” said Naveen Yaseen of Elixir Securities.



“Interestingly, the session witnessed cherry picking in recent laggards to the likes of Pakistan Telecom (PTC PA -0.8%) and Adamjee Insurance (AICL PA +1%) as outlook on company’s upcoming earnings remains strong.

“We remain optimistic and expect investors to likely hunt for opportunities as turnover gradually improves. We recommend staying long in KOHC, NBP, HUBC and PSO,” he suggested.

Trade volumes fell further to 54 million shares compared with Thursday’s tally of 66 million.

Shares of 285 companies were traded on the last trading session of the week. At the end of the day, 129 stocks closed higher, 130 declined while 26 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs2.7 billion.



NIB Bank Limited was the volume leader with 3.7 million shares, gaining Rs0.02 to finish at Rs2.19. It was followed by Bank Al-Falah with 2.6 million shares, gaining Rs0.08 to close at Rs28.12 and Nishat Power with 2.5 million shares, gaining Rs1.56 close at Rs37.41.

Foreign institutional investors were net buyers of Rs129 million worth of shares during the trading session, according to data compiled by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 12^th, 2014.

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