Market watch: Stocks rise 84 points in thin trade Market

Investors focus on NBP shares which hit upper limit .

KARACHI: After a bearish first session of the week, the stock market managed to gain 83.79 points on Tuesday and seemed unaffected by the torrential rains in the city.

The Karachi Stock Exchange’s benchmark 100-share index ended the day at 11,264.43 points with 22 million shares changing hands.

The bourse management reversed an earlier decision to end trading early and the market closed at the scheduled 3:30 pm despite extremely low volumes. However, transactions which took place during the session will be settled today (Wednesday) as bank staff could not reach their workplaces because of the rain. According to KSE officials, a notice on trade settlement would be issued.

In spite of the fact that volumes remained low due to thin attendance on account of heavy rain, the market gained several points, according to Topline Securities’ equity dealer Samar Iqbal.

Investors continued with their interest in National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) stocks, which closed at the upper limit, after its management talked with analysts to dispel concerns about bad loans. NBP hit its maximum 5% upper limit for the day with a relatively high volume of 5.9 million shares on market talk of buying by foreign funds.

Lotte PTA also performed well on the back of a global increase in cotton and pure terephthalic acid (PTA) prices.

Pakistan Oilfield’s stocks remained in the limelight and gained 0.6% after the company posted decent earnings and payout for fiscal year 2011. Attock Group companies also continued to hold investor interest and Attock Petroleum’s stocks stayed firm, gaining 1.2%.

Shares of 283 companies were traded during the day. At the end of the session, 116 stocks closed higher, 72 declined and 95 remained unchanged. Value of shares traded during the day was Rs1.31 billion.

NBP was the volume leader with 5.85 million shares, gaining Rs2.05 to end at Rs44.80. It was followed by Lotte Pakistan PTA with 4.18 million shares, gaining Rs0.28 to end at Rs13.28 and Fauji Fertilizer bin Qasim with 1.9 million shares, losing Rs0.12 to end at Rs49.67.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 14^th,  2011.