Market watch: KSE-100 advances amid cautious trading

Benchmark index increases 221.79 points to settle at 40,664.60

KARACHI: The stock market managed to recover on Tuesday despite a somewhat dull session and lack of triggers.

The KSE-100 index kicked off trading on a positive note but it dropped sharply to the intra-day low of 40,259.03 points in the first hour of trading.

Investors remained cautious in anticipation of a correction following the bullish trend of last week. Although the index managed to post a decent recovery, the trading activity remained range bound.

At close, the benchmark KSE 100-share Index recorded an increase of 221.79 points, or 0.55%, to settle at 40,664.60.

JS Global analyst Danish Ladhani said equities closed on a positive note with the benchmark KSE-100 index gaining 222 points and closing at 40,665.

"The correction seen on Monday (down 289 points) was short-lived as investors took the opportunity to accumulate equities in Tuesday's session," he said.

Pakistan Oilfields (+2.2%), Lucky Cement (+2.4%), Nestle (+5%), UBL (+1.1%) and PSO (+1.5%) contributed to the positive close.

"Moving ahead, we expect the market to remain positive as the overall bullish momentum continues to remain intact," he added.

According to an AHL report, the market traded in a narrow range oscillating between -184 points and +222 points.

Activity remained relatively slow as compared with Monday as buyers were cautious about the market correction, which had been anticipated since last week, it said.

Stocks of auto, steel, cement and banking sectors experienced selling pressure. Sectors contributing to the positive performance included cement (+51 points), pharmaceutical (+27 points), banking (+25 points), oil and gas marketing (+25 points) and exploration and production (+20 points).

Overall, trading volumes decreased to 254.6 million shares compared with Monday's tally of 320.1 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs9.2 billion.

Shares of 375 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 189 stocks closed higher, 161 declined and 25 remained unchanged.

Unity Foods was the volume leader with 30.5 million shares, gaining Rs0.76 to close at Rs14.05. It was followed by Fauji Foods with 19.3 million shares, gaining Rs0.20 to close at Rs16.16 and K-Electric with 15.8 million shares, gaining Rs0.06 to close at Rs4.63.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs598.5 million worth of shares during the trading session, according to data compiled by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan.