Market watch: Stocks close marginally higher

Karachi Stock Exchange benchmark 100-share index ended 20 points higher on Friday.

KARACHI: Stocks closed marginally higher on Friday following profit-taking in the final hours of trading.

The Karachi Stock Exchange benchmark 100-share index ended 0.16 per cent or 20.04 points higher at 12,431.91.

Foreign interest pushed the market higher in the first half and a similar trend was witnessed till early second half, said JS Global Capital analyst Arsalan Khan. However, profit-taking in late trading pared gains and the market closed up marginally despite the index being up 150 points at one time, added Khan.

The trading volume recovered by 10.3 per cent and stood at 202.6 million shares compared with Thursday’s 183.6 million shares.

The bearish sentiment in the market was a result of investor preference to book profits as they believed valuations have become stretched, said Khan.

Tal block impact

Oil stocks were the worst hit as field operator MOL shut operations in the key Tal block on security concerns, said Elixir Securities equity dealer Faisal Bilwani.

Pakistan Oilfields (POL), with a 21 per cent stake in the block, suffered the most due to the smaller revenue base while the field closure is also negative for Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) and Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL), each having a 28 per cent stake, added Bilwani.

Monetary policy, which is due by the end of the next trading week, is likely to remain under the limelight with possibility of no rate hike a positive for the market, said Bilwani.

Pakistan State Oil went up 1.1 per cent on better result expectations in the first half of fiscal 2011 mainly on the back of anticipation of a reversal in turnover tax.

Shares of 372 companies were traded on the last trading day of the week.

At the end of the day, 205 stocks closed higher, 140 declined and 27 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs7.12 billion. Lafarge Cement was the volume leader with 36.16 million shares, losing two per cent to finish at Rs3.44.

It was followed by Lotte Pakistan PTA with 22.43 million shares, falling 3.5 per cent to close at Rs14.71 and Azgard Nine Limited with 20.79 million shares, surging to its upper limit and closing at Rs11.87 as investors bet on debt restructuring of the company’s troubled finances.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 22^nd, 2011.