Market watch: Bulls dominate as index goes past 34,000

Benchmark 100-share index rises 208.42 points

KARACHI: The index gained on the back of bulls driving the market towards the end of the shortened Ramazan session, helping it out of the red and over the 34,000-point barrier.

Rally in the oil and gas sector, coupled with buying in select stocks over positive news flow, helped the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE)-100 index gain after a tough previous week.

At close on Monday, the benchmark index stood at 34,093.55, recording a rise of 0.62% or 208.42 points.



Elixir Securities analyst Faisal Bilwani said equities recovered after volatile trading in the early half of the day. “Stocks traded volatile and tested a low of 33,800 in early trade,” said Bilwani. “Index tracked regional markets as investors feared trickle down selling from foreigners.”

“However, institutional buying and end of the fiscal year window dressing helped cover early losses.”

Bilwani added that K-Electric (KEL) +2.6% that lost near 9% in the last six sessions during the heatwave covered some ground while small and mid caps topped volumes charts.

JS Global analyst Ahmed Saeed Khan said that as the market shook off the loss last week, the bulls reappeared to close the index up.

“PSO, POL and NRL all ended 0.1%, 1.1% and 1.3% higher, respectively.”

Khan said following PM’s approval of allocating Rs32.5 billion from the unused PSDP to three redundant power plants the sector rallied closing most scripts positively.

“Post Punjab and Sindh’s tractor friendly budgets and continuous rally, profit taking was witnessed in tractor manufacturing scripts,” said Khan.

Trade volumes decreased to 293 million shares compared to 400 million on Friday. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs8 billion.



Shares of 354 companies were traded on Monday. Of these, 225 companies closed higher, 113 fell and 16 remained unchanged.

Dewan Cement was the volume leader with 30 million shares, losing Rs0.05 to close at Rs13.83. It was followed by K-Electric Limited with 25.9 million shares, gaining Rs0.21 to close at Rs8.27 and Byco Petroleum with 19.3 million shares, gaining Rs0.13 to close at Rs22.88.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs123 million worth of shares during the session, according to data compiled by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 30^th,  2015.

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