Market watch: Index gains in final hour to end marginally positive

Benchmark KSE 100-share Index finishes with increase of 0.03%

KARACHI: The index jumped over 480 points within the final hour to end marginally positive after a lacklustre day of trading put investors in a snooze mode.

Heavy selling in the afternoon meant the index nosedived over 350 points before value buying helped its ride towards the green.

At close on Tuesday, the Pakistan Stock Exchange’s (PSX) benchmark KSE 100-share Index finished with a rise of 13.48 points or 0.03% to end at 48,534.23.

Elixir Securities analyst Ali Raza said equities finished little changed after witnessing a dull session where less than 90 million shares changed hands on the benchmark KSE-100 Index.

“Stocks opened listless and traded in a narrow range as investors, both institutional and retail, stayed on the sidelines for most part of the day in the absence of major triggers and amid increasing headwinds from domestic politics and tightening regulations,” said Raza.

“The final two hours, however, took investors on a roller coaster ride as index first nosedived 0.75% followed by recovery that wiped all the day’s losses on reported institutional buying.

“Engro Corp (+1.8%) contributed most points followed by International Steels (+4.6%) and Sui Northern Gas Company (+3.7%) while dent came primarily from select index heavy bluechips on reported locals selling,” said Raza.

Topline Securities analyst Hammad Aman said that the last day of the month started off on a slow note with the KSE-100 trading in a range of +/- 200 points.

“The index made an intraday low of -374 points, however, due to value picking the index made a swift reversal and managed to close up,” said Aman.

Trading volumes fell to 228 million shares compared with Monday’s tally of 250 million.

Shares of 404 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 159 stocks closed higher, 237 declined while 8 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs10.7 billion.

ASL was the volume leader with 17 million shares, losing Rs0.34 to close at Rs23.46. It was followed K-Electric Limited with 14.4 million shares, losing Rs0.02 to close at Rs9.53 and Power Cement Limited with 14.4 million shares, losing 0.81 to close at Rs16.94.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs965 million during the trading session, according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 1^st, 2017.

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