Market watch: Stocks gain 63 points in see-saw session

Benchmark index rises 0.16% to settle at 39,306.50

KARACHI: The KSE-100 index had a see-saw session on Friday but bulls eventually managed to push the index higher by 63 points on the last day of the week.

Investors opted for profit-booking as they awaited the mini-budget announcement, which was due next week. The market dropped below the 39,100-point mark, before advancing for a brief period. However, after major oscillations, the bourse recouped all the day's losses to end the session in the black.

Most of the selling was witnessed in exploration and production, financial and cement sectors, which succumbed to dented investor sentiments.

At the end of trading, the benchmark KSE 100-share Index recorded an increase of 62.61 points, or 0.16%, to settle at 39,306.50.



Arif Habib Limited, in its report, said the market opened on a positive note and the volume improved in the first session, crossing 70 million shares.

"The index oscillated between -152 points and +147 points during the day," it said. "Significant volumes were seen in K-Electric with trading in 55.9 million shares (36% of the total traded volume) on expectation of conclusion of a stake sale deal with Shanghai Electric."

Selling pressure was mainly noted in exploration and production, financial and cement sectors. The market largely performed on expected policy changes in the upcoming mini-budget, which was likely to bring good news for some sectors.

Stocks that contributed positively included Fauji Fertilizer (+29 points), K-Electric (+18 points) and Engro Polymer (+11 points). Stocks that contributed negatively were Habib Bank (-20 points), United Bank (-11 points) and Nestle (-9 points).



Overall, trading volumes increased to 155 million shares compared with Thursday's tally of 104.5 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs5.12 billion.

Shares of 335 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 185 stocks closed higher, 129 declined and 21 remained unchanged.

K-Electric was the volume leader with 55.92 million shares, gaining Rs0.31 to close at Rs6.45. It was followed by TRG Pakistan with 8.13 million shares, gaining Rs0.35 to close at Rs24.81 and Unity Foods with 7.78 million shares, gaining Rs0.81 to close at Rs22.97.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs230.4 million worth of shares during the trading session, according to data compiled by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan.