The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) ended the week on a positive note with key support coming from cement and steel sectors that attracted investors’ interest.
While oil stocks received a battering following a decline in international crude prices, expectations about the announcement of a government housing scheme generated buying activity in the cement sector.
Furthermore, rupee stability and the State Bank of Pakistan’s (SBP) measures for reduction in mark-up on export refinance schemes strengthened investors’ sentiment.
The index opened higher and continued its upward march. A few dips were, however, noted but these were corrected immediately. Overall, the strong investor sentiment pushed the market into positive territory and it ended the day with a slight increase.
At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index recorded an increase of 48.24 points, or 0.13%, to settle at 36,190.41 points.
Arif Habib Limited, in its report, stated that the market traded in a narrow range of -139 points and +137 points, closing the session higher by 48 points above 36,000 levels.
Profit-booking was observed in banking, pharma, exploration and production, oil marketing and fertiliser stocks whereas cement and steel sectors gained further momentum, it said.
The report added that expected announcement of a housing scheme by the prime minister along with financing through banks encouraged institutional investors to extend positions in the cement sector.
The cement sector posted the highest volumes of 43.4 million shares, followed by technology firms (33.2 million) and vanaspati producers (27.9 million).
Stocks that contributed positively to the index included Lucky Cement (+22 points), NBP (+17 points), Engro (+15 points), Maple Leaf Cement (+10 points) and Bank AL Habib (+9 points).
Stocks that contributed negatively included Pakistan Petroleum (-13 points), TRG Pakistan (-12 points), OGDC (-9 points), PSO (-9 points) and GlaxoSmithKline (-7 points).
JS Global analyst Maaz Mulla said the market remained range bound, touching intra-day high and low of +138 and -139 points respectively.
Traded volumes stood at 293 million shares. Top volume stocks were Unity Foods (-1.3%), Maple Leaf Cement (+3.2%) and TRG Pakistan (-3.1%), which cumulatively contributed over 67 million shares.
The cement sector was up again where Maple Leaf Cement (+3.2%), Pioneer Cement (+3.1%), Cherat Cement (+1.4%), Lucky Cement (+1.5%) and Fauji Cement (+1.6%) were the major movers, he added.
Moreover, selling pressure was witnessed in the exploration and production and pharmaceutical sectors where Pakistan Oilfields (-0.6%), Pakistan Petroleum Limited (-0.9%), Searle (-1.4%) and GlaxoSmithKline (-3.2%) closed in the red.
“Moving forward, we expect the market to follow the same trend. Our top picks are cement, technology and oil marketing sectors,” the analyst said.
Overall, trading volumes fell to 292.7 million shares compared with Thursday’s tally of 467.5 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs9.6 billion.
Shares of 358 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 167 stocks closed higher, 174 declined and 17 remained unchanged.
Unity Foods was the volume leader with 27.98 million shares, losing Rs0.16 to close at Rs12.59. It was followed by Maple Leaf Cement with 24.6 million shares, gaining Rs0.92 to close at Rs29.28 and TRG Pakistan with 14.2 million shares, losing Rs1.12 to close at Rs35.19.
Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs204.3 million worth of shares during the trading session, according to data compiled by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan.
COMMENTS
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ