Market watch: Stock market ends flat before weekend break

Benchmark KSE-100 index crawls up two points; volumes surge to 126m shares.

KARACHI:

The stock market remained stable on Friday despite the Federal Board of Revenue’s move to amend rules of Capital Gains Tax to lift stock market activity.

The Karachi Stock Exchange’s (KSE) benchmark 100-share index rose 0.02 per cent or 2 points to end at 12,476.77 points.

After a bullish start, the stock market experienced heightened profit taking later in the day due to a poor law and order situation in the city and investors playing it safe in the last trading session before the weekend, JS Global analyst Murtaza Jafar said.

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Friday issued draft amendments in the Income Tax Rules pertaining to the Capital Gain Tax (CGT) in a bid to lift activity at the stock markets.

Banks led a surge for the second straight day in buying buoyed by rumours of the central bank allowing banks to reclassify Force Sale Value on collateral assets, said Elixir Securities equity dealer Nazim Abdul Muttalib. National Bank of Pakistan was a key beneficiary of this, gaining Rs0.13 to finish at Rs54.82.

Pakistan Petroleum’s recent upward trend came to an end as the share declined Rs0.13 to finish at Rs215.09.

Trade volumes rose dramatically to 126.25 million shares compared with Thursday’s tally of 70 million shares. Of the total, 60 million belonged solely to NIB right shares decline Re0.01 to close at Re0.01.

It was followed by Fauji Fertilizer Bin Qasim Limited (FFBL) with 6.44 million shares gaining Rs0.54 to close at Rs47.52. FFBL witnessed active buying since the company increased DAP prices by Rs150 per bag to mitigate the impact of higher raw material prices. Arif Habib Corporation Limited had the third largest volume share with five million shares gaining Rs0.3 to close at Rs28.51.

Shares of 343 companies were traded on the last trading session of the week. At the end of the day 117 stocks closed higher, 109 declined while 117 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs3.6 billion.

Foreign institutional investors were gross buyers of Rs243.6 million and gross sellers of Rs572.3 million during the trade session, according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.





Published in The Express Tribune, July 23^rd, 2011.