Market watch: Bourse gains in dull session

Benchmark KSE-100 share index firms 61 points.

KARACHI:

Equities rebounded sharply on Wednesday to recover the preceding day losses amid relatively low volumes.

The Karachi Stock Exchange’s (KSE) benchmark 100-share index gained 0.49 per cent or 60.86 points to end at 12,423.3 point level against the preceding day’s fall of 103 points.

The gain was mainly supported by illiquid stocks as Nestle alone contributed around 38 points in total gain of 60 points, said Topline Securities equity dealer Samar Iqbal.

Banking stocks remained marginally up with MCB Bank leading by rising 0.7% on the back of expectations of healthy results and payout.

Trade volumes fell to paltry level of 61 million shares compared with Tuesday’s tally of 67 million shares.

Pakistan State Oil (PSO) lost ground on news that the company threatened a cut in oil supply due to delay in payment of its receivables from various clients.

PSO plummeted 2.2 per cent to close at Rs267.91 with talks of foreign selling as well. Energy companies, Pakistan Petroleum and Pakistan Oilfields also fell 1% and 0.1%, respectively.

Sales numbers showing six per cent decline in sales to 2.9 million tons in May kept fertiliser stocks under pressure. Fauji Fertiliser Company fell 1.7% to close at Rs152.33.

Shares of 337 companies were traded on Wednesday. At the end of the day 146 stocks closed higher, 98 declined while 93 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs3.1 billion.

Fatima Fertiliser Company was the volume leader with 5.27 million shares gaining Rs0.4 to finish at Rs16.08. It was followed by Nimir Industrial Chemicals with 4.04 million shares firming Rs0.26 to close at Rs2.87 and Byco Petroleum with 3.93 million shares gaining Rs0.03 to close at Rs9.09.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 30^th, 2011.