Market watch: Equities close marginally positive, index shies away from 40,500

Benchmark KSE 100-share Index rises 60.64 points

KARACHI: Pakistan equities continued to trade volatile in another topsy-turvy finish to the day, with the benchmark-100 index closing only marginally positive.

A negative start was followed by an impressive bull run that ended as the KSE-100 approached 40,500.

Gains in select industrials and consumer plays were offset by losses in E&Ps and select index names.



At close on Wednesday, the Pakistan Stock Exchange’s benchmark KSE-100 recorded a rise of 0.15% or 60.64 points to end at 40,355.02.

Elixir Securities, in its report, stated the market opened positive, and briefly drifted lower with E&Ps dragging the benchmark KSE-100 index in the red as participants tracked the dip in global crude.

“Index decline was underscored by lower volumes which resulted in KSE-100 index swiftly recovering with sideboard plays once again leading the action, albeit on increased volatility,” said analyst Ali Raza.

“Retail favourites to the likes of Bank of Punjab (BOP +3.9%) and TRG Pakistan (TRG +5%) topped volumes chart, while auto sector also remained in the limelight on retail interest with Indus Motors (INDU +5%), Pak Suzuki Motors (PSMC +5%) and Sazgar Engineering (SAZEW +5%) all closing at the upper price limits,” remarked Raza.

“Meanwhile, second tier industrial play Tariq Glass (TGL -5%) hit lower price limit after the company announced earnings below expectations,” he added.

JS Global analyst Nabeel Haroon said volatility prevailed as the index traded between an intraday high of +173 points and intraday low of -87 points.

“ICI gained to close on its cap for the second consecutive day on the back of material information disseminated in the market that it intends to establish manufacturing facility for local production of Morinaga infant formula products,” said the analyst.

“OGDC (-0.50%), PPL (-0.81%) and POL (-0.61%) in the E&P sector lost value to close in the red zone, as crude oil prices remained volatile amid talks of OPEC members with Russia later today in Algiers.



“SEARL (-0.07%) lost value to close in the red zone, as the pharmaceutical company declared its results for FY16,” said Haroon.

“In its result, the company posted consolidated EPS of Rs16.60/share along with a final cash dividend and stock bonus of Rs5/share and 14%, respectively. This pay-out was in addition to 10% interim stock bonus already issued by the company.

“Moving forward, we expect volatility to persist in the market in the ongoing futures rollover week,” he added.

Trade volumes fell to 435 million shares compared with Tuesday’s tally of 574 million.

Shares of 440 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 193 stocks closed higher, 227 declined while 20 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs13.7 billion.

Bank of Punjab was the volume leader with 52.8 million shares, gaining Rs0.51 to finish at 13.58. It was followed by TRG Pakistan with 47 million shares, gaining Rs2.10 to close at Rs44.17 and Pace (Pakistan) Limited with 22.6 million shares, losing Rs0.47 to close at Rs10.93.

Foreign institutional investors were net buyers of Rs24 million during the trading session, according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 29^th, 2016.

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