Market watch: Index continues upward trend, settles few points shy of 47,000

Benchmark KSE 100-share Index gains 230.74 points

KARACHI: Pakistan equities closed higher helped by modest gains in select index names.

At close, the Pakistan Stock Exchange’s (PSX) benchmark KSE 100-share Index finished with a rise of 0.49% or 230.74 points to end at 46,920.47.

Elixir Securities, in its report, stated that trading activity remained on the lower side with stocks seeing little participation ahead of the year end, primarily from institutional investors.

“Market gained steadily during the day with select blue-chips across financials, oils, cements and industrial sideboards driving gains on selective value buying,” said analyst Ali Raza.



“Index heavy Habib Bank (HBL PA +2%) emerged as a top performer and contributed over 65 points to the benchmark KSE-100 Index, while Pakistan State Oil (PSO PA +1.3%) and Attock Refinery (ATRL PA +3%) also ended up driven by earnings excitement primarily from inventory gains amid recovering global crude,” Raza commented.

“On the flip side, Hub Power (HUBC PA -1.4%) witnessed correction on low volumes and dented KSE-100 index by most points.

“We expect selective interest to continue in the remaining days of this year with the benchmark index hovering and consolidating near 47,000,” he added.

Meanwhile, JS Global analyst Nabeel Haroon was of the view that positivity prevailed in the market as the index gained around 231 points to close at 46,920 level.

“OMCs led the gains in the market as the sector gained to closed (1.9%) higher than its previous day close. HASCOL (5%) and PSO (1.31%) were major index movers from the aforementioned sector,” said Haroon.

“Nominal increase was witnessed in the E&P sector as crude oil prices traded comfortably above $53/bl level on the back of anticipation that balance will come to an oversupplied oil market as OPEC and 11 nations including Russia will trim their production by 1.8 million barrels a day from January 2017 onwards,” he remarked.

“HCAR (3.07%) in the automobile sector extended its gains to close in the green for the second consecutive session.



“Moving forward, we recommend investors to accumulate new positions on dip,” Haroon added.

Trading volumes rose to 198 million shares compared with Monday’s tally of 179 million.

Shares of 405 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 204 stocks closed higher, 180 declined while 21 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs11 billion.

Dewan Cement was the volume leader with 15.2 million shares, gaining Rs1.09 to finish at Rs37.23. It was followed by Bank of Punjab with 13.7 million shares, gaining Rs0.37 to close at Rs17.58 and Dost Steels Limited with 13 million shares, gaining Rs0.20 to close at Rs10.68.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs37 million during the trading session, according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 28^th, 2016.

Like Business on Facebook, follow @TribuneBiz on Twitter to stay informed and join in the conversation.