Market watch: Index closes in red as profit-booking trims gains

Benchmark KSE 100-share Index loses 68.53 points

KARACHI: A largely positive ride ended negative in the final hours as the benchmark-100 index underwent a minor fall, decreasing 68.53 points on Friday to end the week negative after five finishes in the green.

At close, the Pakistan Stock Exchange’s (PSX) benchmark KSE-100 Index registered a decrease of 0.17% to end at 39,188.47 points.

Elixir Securities, in its report, stated that Pakistan equities traded volatile to close negative with participants booking profits ahead of the weekend.

“The KSE-100 index rose 158 points, or 0.4%, to another fresh all-time high, however, failed to sustain that level and tested support near 39,150,” said analyst Ali Raza.

“Declines were led by index heavy yield-play Hub Power (HUBC PA -2.5%) that after gaining over 13% since June 27 broke its nine-day winning streak and dented benchmark index,” he said.

“Cements that regained momentum succumbed to selling pressure at highs; DG Khan (DGKC PA 0.5%) ended with trimmed gains after climbing 2.6% intra-day.

“E&Ps and financials traded mixed, while OMCs closed mostly in green; Hascol Petroleum (HPL PA 3.3%) maintained its northbound ride on persistent foreign buying, while Hi-Tech Lubricants (HTL PA 2.9%) rallied, churning highest-ever volumes in the process, with investors hopeful on bets that company will secure oil marketing licence from the regulator,” Raza added.

JS Global analyst Nabeel Haroon said that volatility prevailed in the market as the index traded between an intraday high of +158 points and intraday low of -110 points to finally close at 39,188 level.

“Automobile sector continued to garner investor interest as Yen extended its loss to take the week-on-week decline to more than 5%,” he said.

“Top performer of the aforementioned sector was INDU (+4.00%). Investor interest was seen in the fertiliser sector as investors anticipate strong fertiliser dispatch number for the month of July on the back of subsidy extended to farmers on Urea and DAP.



“EFERT (+1.06%) and FFBL (+1.20%) were top gainers of the aforementioned sector,” said the analyst.

“Moving forward, we maintain our bullish stance on the market and recommend investors to accumulate value stocks,” Haroon added.

Trade volumes rose to 199.7 million shares compared with Thursday’s tally of 165 million.

Shares of 349 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 192 stocks closed higher, 132 declined while 25 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs13.6 billion.

TRG Pakistan Limited was the volume leader with 15.7 million shares, gaining Rs0.77 to finish at Rs35.41. It was followed by Dewan Motors with 12.3 million shares, gaining Rs0.92 to finish at Rs16.87 and Sui North Gas with 12.1 million shares, gaining Rs0.35 to close at Rs40.80.

Foreign institutional investors were net buyers of Rs386 million during the trading session, according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 16^th, 2016.

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