Market watch: KSE-100 gains 82 points amid volatile trading

Benchmark index rises 0.2% to settle at 41,320.13

KARACHI: The KSE-100 index extended its gains from the previous session and closed up by 82 points on Wednesday after experiencing a volatile session.

On the political front, the suspension of prison terms of Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam, awarded to them in the Avenfield properties case, by the Islamabad High Court failed to cast a significant impact on the stock market.

The day kicked off on a positive note, but bearish sentiments prevailed soon, triggering a highly volatile session with ups and downs at regular intervals. The market closed above 41,300 points with a small increase.

Automobile stocks rose in the wake of government’s decision in the mini-budget that allowed non-filers of tax returns purchase of new cars. Stocks of cement and financial companies also performed well during the day.



At close, the benchmark KSE 100-share Index recorded an increase of 82.06 points or 0.20% to settle at 41,320.13.

JS Research analyst Maaz Mulla said market movements were reflective of a see-saw session where the bourse juggled between green and red zones. It hit an intra-day low of -137 points and intra-day high of +119 points to close at 41,320, up 82 points.

Mulla said buying was witnessed towards the close as investors took the opportunity to accumulate stocks on attractive valuations and after the Islamabad High Court suspended the sentences handed to former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, his daughter Maryam Nawaz and son-in-law Mohammad Safdar in the Avenfield corruption reference.

“Volumes remained subdued as 159 million shares changed hands during the day. K-Electric (+0.19%) led the volumes with more than 30 million shares traded,” he added.

Banking stocks blew hot and cold as big players such as Habib Bank (+0.83%), United Bank (+0.03%) and Bank AL Habib (+0.40%) closed in the green zone while MCB Bank (-0.39%) and National Bank (-0.86%) were in the red zone.

DG Khan Cement (+1.63%) declared its FY18 result, where the company posted earnings per share of Rs20.25 and cash payout of Rs4.25 per share.



Investor interest was noted in the auto sector after Finance Minister Asad Umar, while presenting the Finance Supplementary (Amendment) Bill 2018, proposed the lifting of restriction on the purchase of new cars by non-filers of tax returns, which was slapped by the previous government.

Major movers in the auto sector were Pak Suzuki Motor Company (+5%), Honda Atlas Cars (+5%) and Indus Motor Company (+0.01%).

“Moving forward, we expect the market to remain positive in the coming session where we recommend investors to buy value stocks on dips,” the analyst added.

Overall, trading volumes decreased to 158.7 million shares compared with Tuesday’s tally of 166.5 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs5.7 billion.

Shares of 351 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 192 stocks closed higher, 140 declined and 19 remained unchanged.

K-Electric was the volume leader with 30.6 million shares, gaining Rs0.01 to close at Rs5.38. It was followed by Summit Bank with 15.1 million shares, losing Rs0.01 to close at Rs1.12 and Unity Foods with 9.4 million shares, gaining Rs1.26 to close at Rs37.5.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs502.1 million worth of shares during the trading session, according to data compiled by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan.