Market watch: Stocks bounce back to recoup losses

KARACHI:

The benchmark KSE-100 index staged a smart recovery at the stock market on Wednesday after plunging nearly 1,200 points since last Friday and it ended the session in the green, aided by cherry-picking from investors.

During the trading session, global crude oil prices steadied with Brent crude futures edging up $0.02 to $50.10 a barrel and US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures easing $0.01 to $47.01 a barrel.

The oil market recovery triggered a buying spree in oil stocks at the Pakistan Stock Exchange and resultantly exploration and production and oil marketing companies moved higher.

Moreover, renewed buying activity in the cement sector lent support to the positive momentum.

The index shot up at the beginning of trading, however, investors started booking profits soon afterwards and most of the gains were eroded by noon. Nevertheless, optimism helped the bourse end the day with modest gains.

Index-heavy sectors including exploration and production, cement, banking and refinery attracted modest investment and helped the market rise past 43,000 points once again.

At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index recorded an increase of 180.76 points, or 0.42%, to settle at 43,087.70 points.

Arif Habib Limited, in its report, stated that the market treaded cautiously, taking cue from stability in international crude oil prices as well as renewed buying activity in the cement sector that added a total of 309 points during the session.

Besides cement, investors opted for bank stocks (particularly HBL), oil and gas marketing companies (Pakistan State Oil), exploration and production firms (Oil and Gas Development Company and Pakistan Petroleum) and engineering/ steel producers (International Steels and International Industries).

The current rollover week will end on Thursday, however, relevant stocks – Unity Foods, TRG Pakistan and NetSol – have largely covered ground.

Sectors contributing to the performance included cement (+81 points), auto (+19 points), engineering (+18 points), banking (+17 points) and insurance (+17 points).

Individually, stocks that contributed positively to the index included Maple Leaf Cement (+21 points), HBL (+20 points), Lucky Cement (+18 points), Engro (+18 points) and Cherat Cement (+13 points).

Stocks that contributed negatively were Mari Petroleum (-17 points), Kohinoor Textile Mills (-10 points), Pakistan Oilfields (-10 points), Fauji Fertiliser (-10 points) and Meezan Bank (-9 points).

JS Global analyst Maaz Mulla said the market ended the session on a positive note, gaining 181 points and closing at 43,088, after touching intraday high and low of +309 and -54 points.

Overall volumes stood at 379 million shares, while traded value came in at $110 million.

Institutional participation was witnessed in the main board stocks. Pakistan Refinery (+5.3%), Maple Leaf Cement (+4.7%), Unity Foods (-0.3%) and TRG Pakistan (+1.6%) contributed a cumulative 75 million shares to the total volume.

A rally emerged in the cement sector where Maple Leaf Cement (+4.7%), Pioneer Cement (+3.8%), Cherat Cement (+4.1%), Attock Cement (+2.7%), Fauji Cement (+1.4%) and DG Khan Cement (+1.6%) gained ground.

The refinery sector also enjoyed the upward trend where Pakistan Refinery (+5.3%), Attock Refinery (+1.8%) and Byco Petroleum (+0.9%) remained in the green, while National Refinery (-1.8%) closed lower.

“Going forward, we expect the market to remain volatile with intraday corrections. We recommend investors to sell on strength,” the analyst said.

Overall, trading volumes fell to 378.9 million shares compared with Tuesday’s tally of 561.9 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs17.7 billion.

Shares of 387 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 231 stocks closed higher, 136 declined and 20 remained unchanged.

Pakistan Refinery was the volume leader with 26.98 million shares, gaining Rs1.03 to close at Rs20.38. It was followed by Maple Leaf Cement with 17.7 million shares, gaining Rs1.87 to close at Rs41.94 and TRG Pakistan with 16.2 million shares, gaining Rs1.12 to close at Rs72.95.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs22.4 million worth of shares during the trading session, according to data compiled by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan.