Market watch: KSE-100 reverses bearish trend

Benchmark index gains 84.91 points to settle at 46,227.65

KARACHI:

After receding for two successive days, the benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) reversed its trend on Friday and edged up about 80 points in topsy-turvy trading.

Market expectation of better financial results in the corporate sector lent support to the bourse and aided its uptrend.

The KSE-100 index opened up and continued to rise during the day as market participants remained optimistic. However, selling pressure emerged in the second half of trading, which wiped off most of the gains. Nevertheless, the KSE-100 managed to close in the green with some gains.

The bourse faced selling pressure at regular intervals amid a lack of positive triggers and declining oil prices in the international market. Investors remained cautious.

Despite the overall positive momentum, cement, pharmaceutical and power sectors bore the brunt of weak investor sentiment and most of the stocks in those sectors recorded losses.

At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index recorded an increase of 84.91 points, or 0.18%, to settle at 46,227.65 points.

Arif Habib Limited, in its report, stated that the market opened on a positive note, but selling pressure still persisted as witnessed in the last two sessions. The index gained 236 points during the day and managed to close in the green.

Selling pressure was observed in banking, cement and steel sectors whereas the technology sector maintained its uptrend, with TRG Pakistan hitting the upper circuit following announcement of its board meeting. A similar performance was witnessed in NetSol.

The Bank of Punjab (BOP) announced its financial results and unlike the activity observed in HBL, Meezan Bank and MCB Bank, the BOP recorded an uptick with increase in trading volume mainly due to dividend declaration of Re1, which translated into more than 10% dividend yield at market rate.

Sectors contributing to the performance included technology (+112 points), auto (+38 points), refinery (+11 points), cement (-32 points), pharmaceutical (-15 points) and power (-15 points).

Individually, stocks that contributed positively to the index included TRG Pakistan (+98 points), Millat Tractors (+47 points), Systems Limited (+14 points) and Byco Petroleum (+11 points).

Stocks that contributed negatively were HBL (-19 points), Fauji Cement (-14 points), Lucky Cement (-12 points), Kot Adu Power Company (-12 points) and Pakistan Oilfields (-11 points).

Overall trading volumes surged to 694.8 million shares compared with Thursday’s tally of 577.95 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs24.9 billion.

Shares of 415 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 205 stocks closed higher, 200 declined and 10 remained unchanged.

Byco Petroleum was the volume leader with 89.8 million shares, gaining Rs0.9 to close at Rs10.30. It was followed by WorldCall Telecom with 62.3 million shares, gaining Rs0.09 to close at Rs1.59 and Hum Network with 60.3 million shares, gaining Rs0.6 to close at Rs7.61.

Foreign institutional investors were net buyers of Rs445.9 million worth of shares during the trading session, according to data compiled by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan.