market watch: Index closes at fresh all-time high

Benchmark KSE-100 index increases 142.17 points

KARACHI: The benchmark-100 index closed Wednesday at a fresh all-time high as gains in pharmaceutical, cement and select financial stocks led the bull run on reported institutional buying.

At close, the Pakistan Stock Exchange’s benchmark KSE-100 index rose 0.36% or 142.17 points to finish at 39,805.88.

Elixir Securities, in its report, stated that momentum continued from Tuesday with stocks opening higher with lagging cements leading the gains on news of better than expected domestic sales in July.



“Lucky Cements (LUCK PA +2.7%) added most to the KSE-100 and recovered recent losses while the sector closed up +0.7% as off take excitement overshadowed announcement of capacity expansion by Power Cement (POWER PA +1.9%),” said analyst Faisal Bilwani.

“It is worth noting that expansion notifications of late have not brought any significant negativity as investors and industry remains confident of growth in local demand.

“Oils helped early gains, however, most stocks witnessed intraday profit taking while Engro Fertilizers (EFERT PA +0.8%) closed marginally up and traded most volumes in last 14 months after announcing a surprise cash pay-out along with half yearly earnings,” Bilwani added.



Meanwhile, JS Global analyst Nabeel Haroon was of the view that positive momentum continued at the market as the index gained 142 points to close at 39,806.

“Cements led early market gains on the back of better-than-expected dispatches for the month of Jul-2016 with LUCK (+2.72%) leading sector charts. In the fertiliser space, EFERT (+0.75%) garnered investor interest on the back of its interim cash dividend announcement of Rs2/share (vs. market expectation of no payout),” he said.

“ABL (+0.41%) and MCB (+0.24%) led gains in the banking sector as both announced better-than-expected 1H2016 earnings/dividend.

“In the Exploration & Production sector, OGDC (+0.35%), POL (+1.49%) and PPL (+0.15%) extended previous day gains amidst consolidating international crude oil prices,” Haroon added.

Trade volumes rose to 242 million shares compared with Tuesday’s tally of 221 million.

Shares of 394 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 217 stocks closed higher, 152 declined while 25 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs12.3 billion.

Dewan Salman was the volume leader with 27.1 million shares, gaining Rs0.59 to finish at Rs3.37. It was followed by Engro Fertilizer with 18.2 million shares, gaining Rs0.51 to close at Rs68.60 and NIB Bank Limited with 13.9 million shares, gaining Rs0.05 to close at Rs1.89.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs853 million during the trading session, according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 11^th, 2016.

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