Market watch: Stocks recover as results season in full gear

Benchmark KSE-100 index gains 163.18 points

KARACHI: The benchmark-100 index saw some of its gains trimmed towards the end, but it still managed to end close to 0.5% higher after institutional buying had pushed it past 34,000 points intra-day.

At close on Tuesday, the Pakistan Stock Exchange’s benchmark KSE 100-share index rose 0.48% or 163.18 points to end at 33,847.74.

Elixir Securities, in its report, said oil stocks led the charge with Oil and Gas Development Company (OGDCL PA +1.2%) contributing to early gains over rumours of its possible inclusion to the Shariah-compliant list.



“The stock gained as much as 4.3% intra-day followed by a sharp dip on lower-than-consensus quarterly earnings.

“On the other hand, cements that lagged for the past few days, staged a comeback and settled 2.1% higher with Lucky Cement Limited (LUCK PA +1.9%) contributing most points to day’s gains and Maple Leaf Cement Factory Limited (MCLF PA +2.7%) also managing a positive close despite its earnings coming lower than street consensus,” said the report.

“Fauji Fertilizer Company (FFC PA -1.9%) closed in the red and dented KSE-100 index the most after release of disappointing earnings and payout.”

“Overall, Tuesday’s session saw a handsome jump in turnover as nearly $99 million worth of shares exchanged hands on benchmark KSE-100 index; almost double of the previous day’s and one-fourth higher of last week’s average,” commented Elixir Securities analyst Ali Raza.

“We eee current positive momentum to help KSE-100 index settle over 34,000 points as investors brush aside politics and focus shifts to fundamentals,” he added.

Meanwhile, JS Global analyst Arhum Ghous said investor interest was seen in the cement sector as PM announced a number of major uplift projects in his speech on Monday, along with anticipation of power tariff reduction in Nepra’s meeting.

“Top performers of the aforementioned sector were Kohat Cement Company Limited (KOHC +4.30%), Pioneer Cement Limited (PIOC +3.48%) and MLCF (+2.72%).

“OGDC (+1.19%) in the E&P sector opened on a positive note and made an intraday high of Rs124.70 but came under selling pressure after the company declared its financial result for 9MFY16,” said Ghous, adding that in its financial result the company declared an EPS of Rs10.11/share which was less than market expectations.

“Bull-run was witnessed in the banking sector with United Bank Limited (UBL +0.83%) and Allied Bank Limited (ABL +2.16%) declaring their financial result for the 1Q2016, which were both better than market’s expectations,” concluded Ghous.

Trade volumes rose to 258 million shares compared with Monday’s tally of 171 million.



Shares of 367 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 185 stocks closed higher, 160 declined while 22 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs11.9 billion.

Sui Northern Gas Pipelines (SNGPL) was the volume leader with 26.4 million shares, gaining Rs1.48 to finish at Rs33.28. It was followed by Dewan Motors with 15.3 million shares, gaining Rs1.00 to close at Rs14.04 and WorldCall Telecom with 13.4 million shares, gaining Rs0.05 to close at Rs1.88.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs450 million during the trading session, according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 27^th,  2016.

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