Market watch: KSE-100 Index crosses 51,000, closes at a fresh record high

Benchmark index gains 137.23 points or 0.27%

KARACHI: The KSE-100 Index continued its positive ride for the fourth straight session on excitement over the upcoming MSCI review and managed to cross, and close, above the 51,000-point level.

While profit-taking trimmed some of the intra-day gains, the Pakistan Stock Exchange's (PSX) benchmark KSE 100-share Index still managed to close with an increase of 137.23 points, or 0.27%, to end at 51,073.14.

According to Elixir Securities, Pakistan equities closed after surging 4.8% in the last three sessions.

“Market opened gap up in the morning as top candidates for MSCI Pakistan Index carried momentum and pushed benchmark KSE-100 Index to test new record high at 51,489 level,” said analyst Ali Raza.



“Index, however, couldn't sustain gains for long and steadily declined to fill most of the gap by mid-day on profit-taking.

“Interestingly, stocks then witnessed recovery and Index revisited the highs beyond 51,400 level but savvy investors booked profits again and dragged Index back to its previous intra-day support near 51,000 level,” said Raza.

“Major contribution to gains came from Lucky Cements (LUCK PA +2%), Hub Power (HUBC PA +2.4%) and MCB Bank (MCB PA +2.3%) while dent came from United Bank (UBL PA -1.8%) and Engro Fertilizers (EFERT PA -3.4%).

“We maintain our optimistic outlook in the near-term and advise cherry-picking blue chips along with MSCI EM names on dips,” he added.



JS Global analyst Arhum Ghous said that the market continued its bullish momentum as KSE-100 index gained to make an intraday high of +553 points, however, closed +137 points at 51,073 levels after some profit taking was witnessed later in the day.

“HUBC (+2.38%), LUCK (+2.00%) and MCB (+2.28%) were the major gainers, whereas major laggards were UBL (-1.75%), OGDC (-0.69%) and FFC (-1.42%) as they cumulatively contributed -81 points to the index,” said Ghous.

“Mixed sentiments were viewed in the cement sector as growth of 0.7% YoY was witnessed in the dispatch numbers released by APCMA for the month of April-2017. Local sales climbed up by 9.5% YoY but exports declined by 50.80% YoY during the month,” he commented.



“DCL (+4.96%) and LUCK (+2.00%) were among the major gainers, whereas on the flip slide MLCF (-1.09%) and DGKC (-0.55%) were among the major losers of the aforementioned sector.

“Moving forward, we expect market to continue its bullish momentum and recommend investors to accumulate potential MSCI EM stocks on dips,” he added.

Overall, trading volumes rose to 370 million shares compared with Monday's tally of 326 million.

Shares of 404 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 177 stocks closed higher and 213 declined while 14 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs22.1 billion.



TRG Pakistan Limited was the volume leader with 36 million shares, gaining Rs1.63 to close at Rs57.92. It was followed by K-Electric Limited with 21.4 million shares, losing Rs0.11 to close at Rs7.81 and Engro Polymer with 16.3 million shares, losing Rs0.44 to close at Rs30.51.

Foreign institutional investors were net buyers of Rs126 million during the trading session, according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.