Market watch: Erratic index keeps investors on toes

Benchmark KSE 100-share Index gains 33.19 points

KARACHI: The KSE-100 Index was unable to sustain its level over 50,000, losing close to 300 points in the last two hours to end at 49,908.15.

Almost all intra-day gains were wiped off with the benchmark-100 share index finishing with a minute increase of 33 points, with selling pressure overshadowing the bullish momentum.

At close on Thursday, the Pakistan Stock Exchange’s (PSX) benchmark KSE 100-share Index finished with a rise of 0.07% or 33.19 points to end at 49,908.15.

Market watch: Index undergoes see-saw ride to end in the red

Elixir Securities analyst Faisal Bilwani said Pakistan equities closed little changed on a day that saw noticeable increase in activity as volume on benchmark index shot up by 40% versus on Wednesday.

“The wider market struggled to find a clear direction in early trade while a surge mid-day pushed the index to test highs near 50,200 level.

“This sharp swing triggered profit taking that wiped all of the day's gains. However, cements stood firm on rumours of Dewan Cements (DCL, +5%) pricing while DG Khan (DGKC, +5%) - one of the seven cement stocks to hit the upper price limit - gained possibly on rumours of company likely committing equity stake in Nishat Group's auto venture with Hyundai.

“Sui Southern Gas Co (SSGC, +2.6%) and Sui Northern Gas Co (SNGP,-3.5%) had opposite fate as former gained on recent expansion news while later took a breather after gaining over 10.7% in previous three trading sessions,” said Bilwani.

“Barring Pakistan Oilfields (POL, +0.8%) that traded positive on the first day of trading, all oil stocks closed red despite global crude inching up.”

Market watch: Index inches up, but shies away from 50,000

JS Global analyst Nabeel Haroon said positivity prevailed in the market for most part of the day as the index gained to make an intraday high of +322 points but came under selling pressure during the latter hours.

“The sector gained to close (+2.14%) higher than its previous day close,” said Haroon.

“International Steel Limited (ISL) (+3.46%) and Aisha Steel Limited (+1.58%) in the steel sector extended their previous day gain on the back of news that NTC has imposed definitive anti-dumping duty in the range of 6-40% on dumped imports of galvanized steel coils/sheets being imported from China.”

Trading volumes rose to 538 million shares compared with Tuesday’s tally of 498 million.

Shares of 432 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 188 stocks closed higher, 220 declined while 24 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs24.4 billion.

K-Electric Limited was the volume leader with 61.7 million shares, remaining unchanged at Rs10.21. It was followed by Power Cement Limited with 36.6 million shares, gaining Rs0.74 to close at Rs17.99 and Dost Steels with 35.3 million shares, gaining Rs0.35 to close at Rs15.98.

Foreign institutional investors were net buyers of Rs191 million during the trading session, according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.