market watch: Bourse rises on jump in oil stocks

Benchmark KSE-100 share index firms 47 points.

KARACHI:

The stock market ended the day up led rumours of Pakistan Petroleum expected to announce special dividend in the extraordinary general meeting.

The Karachi Stock Exchange’s (KSE) benchmark 100-share index gained 0.39 per cent or 47.63 points to end at 12,377.77 point level.

The stock closed with clipped gains as no such announcement was made by the company, said JS Global Capital analyst Jawad Khan. Pakistan Petroleum rose Rs1.44 to close at Rs212.24. Increase in international oil prices also helped local oil production companies to remain in the green.

Among fertilisers, Fauji Fertiliser Company was the pick of the day jumping 1.6 per cent over rumours of an expected urea price hike owing to the gas swap deal between fertilisers on SNGPL network and independent power producers.

On the contrary, Engro remained under selling pressure, closing down 0.9 per cent, throughout the day owing to reports of gas supply disruptions. Outflow in refineries continued with Attock Refinery losing 3.26 per cent as lower refinery production numbers lowered sentiments.

Trade volumes firmed to 103 million shares compared with Thursday’s tally of 112 million shares. Shares of 347 companies were traded on the last trading session of the week. At the end of the day 119 stocks closed higher, 137 declined while 91 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs3.65 billion.

SilkBank Limited was the volume leader with 23.6 million shares gaining Rs0.1 to finish at Rs3. It was followed by Fatima Fertiliser with 7.88 million shares gaining Rs0.23 to close at Rs14.75 and Jahangir Siddiqui and Company with 5.91 million shares losing Rs0.07 to close at Rs7.96.









Published in The Express Tribune, June 11th, 2011.