Market watch: Index powers past 40,500 after see-saw ride

Benchmark KSE 100-Index rises 246.29 points

KARACHI: Pakistan equities recovered from Thursday’s tense session, with the benchmark-100 index settling over 40,500 and covering almost half of the intra-day losses suffered on the previous day.

At close on Friday, the Pakistan Stock Exchange’s benchmark KSE-100 recorded a rise of 0.61% or 246.29 points to end at 40,541.81.

Elixir Securities, in its report, stated market opened positive but gains were erased soon after owing to lower volumes in the wider market as investors treaded cautiously, resulting in a choppy trade and KSE-100 index witnessing large swings.



“But stocks steadied in the last hour of the afternoon session and carried momentum thereafter with second- and third-tier names leading gains and fetching most interest,” said analyst Ali Raza.

“Select index names namely MCB Bank (MCB PA +1.8%), Nishat Mills (NML PA +4.2%), Engro Corp (PA +1.2%) and Habib Bank (HBL PA +0.6%) also lent a helping hand on institutional interest,” said Raza.

“Engro Foods (EFOODS PA +5%) also came under the spotlight and hit the upper price as investors cheered the public announcement of offer by FrieslandCampina at a price 9% above Thursday’s close,” he added.

Meanwhile, JS Global analyst Nabeel Haroon was of the view that positivity prevailed in the market as the index, after yesterday’s see-saw activity, gained 246 points.



“Investor interest was seen in automobile sector on the back of depreciating Yen. HCAR (+4.74%) was the major gainer of the aforementioned sector with the news of becoming the first OEM in Pakistan to launch 0W20 SN high grade fully synthetic engine oil,” said Haroon.

“FATIMA (++1.85%) in the fertiliser sector closed in the green as the fertiliser off take numbers released by NFDC for the month of Aug-16 showed MoM growth in company’s dispatches of around 12% and 98% for Urea and CAN, respectively.

“Moving forward, we reiterate our bullish stance on the market and recommend investors to accumulate on dips,” he added.

Trade volumes fell to 436 million shares compared with Thursday’s tally of 712 million.

Shares of 435 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 310 stocks closed higher, 114 declined while 11 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs14 billion.

K-Electric was the volume leader with 55.7 million shares, gaining Rs0.21 to finish at 9.21. It was followed by Pace (Pak) Limited with 28.2 million shares, gaining Rs0.45 to close at Rs12.38 and TRG Pak Limited with 26.2 million shares, gaining Rs2.18 to close at Rs45.89.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs884 million during the trading session, according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 1^st, 2016.

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