Market watch: Profit-taking witnessed, but index surpasses 49,500

Benchmark KSE-100 Index registers increase of 145.42 points on Thursday

KARACHI: Pakistan equities closed at a new record high despite profit-taking that took the shine off some of the intra-day gains on Thursday.

At close, the Pakistan Stock Exchange’s (PSX) benchmark KSE 100-share Index finished with a rise of 0.29% or 145.42 points to end at 49,517.02.

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Elixir Securities, in its report, stated the market gained sharply in early-morning trade led by index heavy oils; as investors tracked improvement in outlook of global crude.

“Fertiliser too, supported morning gains on rumours that the Punjab provincial government is maintaining the subsidy for farmers, while Engro Fertilizers (EFERT PA -0.5%) along with its parent company Engro Corp (ENGRO PA -0.6%) also gained on news of additional gas supply to their urea plant,” said analyst Ali Raza.

“Meanwhile, institutional buying in cements reportedly from local investors also kept notable cement stocks in limelight. However, market witnessed profit-taking across the board as benchmark KSE-100 Index climbed 0.9% intra-day to a new record high of 49,805,” Raza commented.

“One notable exception was Hub Power (HUBC PA +4.1%) that stayed strong throughout on positive news of company increasing stake in planned coal-power project.

“Despite profit-taking, we see current domestic-liquidity-led positive momentum to continue in near term with KSE-100 Index soon reaching a major milestone of 50,000,” he added.

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JS Global analyst Nabeel Haroon said the market continued its positive momentum as the index initially gained to make an intraday high of +433 points. However, profit taking was observed towards the end of the day with index ultimately closing at 49,517.

“Of the key sectors, profit taking was observed in the textile sector with key names such as NML (-1.73%), NCL (-3.05%) and GATM (-4.78%) closing in the red zone,” said Haroon.

“HUBC (+4.09%) extended its previous day rally on the back of material information disseminated in the market that the IPP has exercised its option to increase its stake in its subsidiary GHPGL from 26% to 47.5%,” he commented.

“Moving forward, we recommend investors to stay cautious as we see alarming increase in leverage levels (both futures and MTS) and expect some volatility as President-Elect Donald Trump takes charge at the Oval office. Expect near term correction and stay in fundamentally strong stocks,” he added.

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Trading volumes rose to 563 million shares compared with Wednesday’s tally of 460 million.

Shares of 437 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 218 stocks closed higher, 202 declined while 17 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs23.7 billion.

Pervez Ahmed was the volume leader with 58.8 million shares, gaining Rs0.35 to finish at Rs3.09. It was followed by TRG Pakistan Limited with 34.1 million shares, gaining Rs1.62 to close at Rs49.60 and K-Electric Limited with 30.4 million shares, with no change to close at Rs9.37.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs261 million during the trading session, according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.