PHOTO: AFP/FILE
The day’s start saw a massive decline as investors treaded carefully after Sunday’s blast in Lahore. As institutions stepped in to buy in key sectors - cement and oil, the index climbed securely into the black zone.
The Pakistan Stock Exchange’s KSE-100 index rose 0.08% or 27.77 points to end at 32,904.32.
According to Elixir Securities’ analyst Ali Raza, the equities closed little changed after trading volatile in a band of around 250 points.
The market carried on last week’s dull momentum with only $36 million worth of shares exchanging hands on the KSE-100 index, down 5% against last week’s average, he said.
“Stocks had a lower start as investors wary of Sunday’s horrific bomb blast in Lahore treaded carefully, resulting in the KSE-100 index shedding nearly 140 points in the morning.
“However, institutional buying in Engro Corp (+1.12%), Pakistan Petroleum (+0.24%) and select cement shares pushed the KSE-100 index out of the red as it settled above 32,900 points at the day’s close.”
Range-bound trading is expected at current levels with investors awaiting institutional flows to set the market tone before taking fresh positions.
Meanwhile, JS Global analyst Arhum Ghous said the market remained lacklustre as the index oscillated between an intraday high of 110.34 points and an intraday low of -139.81 to finally close at 32,904.32.
“Fecto (+4%), Lucky (+0.54%) and Maple Leaf (+2.42%) in the cement sector continued their upward trajectory on strong March 2016 sales.
“International Industries and Inter Steel in the steel sector continued to garner investor interest on the back of imposition of anti-dumping duty, as both the companies gained to close on their respective upper circuits.”
Moreover, Honda Atlas Cars (+2.18%) and Indus Motor (+0.52%) in the automobile sector rose on the back of news that local automobile manufacturers were likely to pass the impact of increase in regulatory duty on steel products on to end-consumers.
Trade volumes fell to 86 million shares compared with Friday’s tally of 109 million shares.
Shares of 339 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 150 stocks closed higher, 166 declined while 23 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs4.6 billion.
Dewan Cement was the volume leader with 5 million shares gaining Rs0.21 to finish at Rs12.99. It was followed by Pak International Bulk Terminal with 4.5 million shares gaining Rs0.80 to close at Rs27.57 and Dewan Motors with 4.3 million shares gaining Rs0.30 to close at Rs9.58.
Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs145 million worth of shares during the trading session, according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 29th, 2016.
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