Market watch: With profit-taking, stocks record thin gains

Benchmark KSE-100 index adds 46.72 points to settle at 45,909.65

KARACHI:

The Pakistan Stock Exchange witnessed a volatile session on Friday, as market players opted to stay on the sidelines mainly owing to weak macroeconomic cues and looming uncertainty.

The benchmark KSE-100 index, after oscillating within a narrow range, managed to creep up before the close of trading.

Despite opening the session in the green zone, across-the-board profit-taking pulled the bourse down.

Though Pakistani rupee made a strong recovery against the US dollar following the approval of $1 billion loan tranche by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), investors resorted to profit-booking at attractive valuations.

The session started on a positive note, however, cautious investors soon dragged the benchmark index down. The activity remained volatile with minor fluctuations. A buying spree just before the end of first half erased the losses.

The second half also began positively as investors started cherry-picking stocks mainly owing to the robust recovery of Pakistani rupee against the US dollar, which saw the index touch intra-day high of 46,133 points. However, late session profit-taking pulled the index down again, which closed with trimmed gains.

At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index recorded an increase of 46.72 points, or 0.1%, to settle at 45,909.65.

JS Global analyst Waqar Iqbal said that the market opened in the green zone and touched an intra-day high of 46,133. Due to profit-taking across the board, the benchmark index eventually closed at 45,910, up only 47 points day-on-day.

WorldCall Telecom (-1.7%), Telecard Limited (+1.5%), Ghani Global Holdings (+0.6%), Oil and Gas Development Company (+1.3%) and First National Equities (+3.3%) were the highest contributors to the total volumes.

“Going forward, we recommend investors to avail any downside as an opportunity to buy in the construction, exploration and production and export-oriented sectors,” the analyst said.

Overall trading volumes decreased to 192.5 million shares compared with Thursday’s tally of 328 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs8.9 billion.

Shares of 360 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 158 stocks closed higher, 178 declined and 24 remained unchanged.

WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 12.8 million shares, losing Rs0.04 to close at Rs2.29. It was followed by Telecard Limited with 9.7 million shares, gaining Rs0.26 to close at Rs17.71 and Ghani Global Holdings with 8 million shares, gaining Rs0.14 to close at Rs22.38.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs90.93 million worth of shares during the trading session, according to data compiled by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan