Market watch: Bourse rockets after four-day downward trend

Karachi Stock Exchange’s 100-share index jumps 278 points.

KARACHI:

Equities rocketed on the last trading session of the week, ending a four-day downward trend as investors aggressively bought fertiliser and oil stocks.

The Karachi Stock Exchange’s (KSE) benchmark 100-share index surged 2.47 per cent or 278.18 points to end at the 11,561.67 point level on Friday.

Positive regional markets and attractive values in oil, bank and fertiliser stocks led to the flurry of activities in almost all blue chip stocks, said JS Global Capital analyst Umer Ayaz.

Oil and Gas Development, the highest weighted stock at the bourse, led the gains by jumping 5% to its upper limit of the day. The jump was triggered by better than expected earnings announcement on Thursday.

Fauji Fertilizer bounced back to hit its upper circuit breaker on expectation of better earnings scheduled to be announced next
week.

Foreign institutional investors were highly active as they bought Rs187 million and sold Rs399 million worth of shares during the trading session, according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.

Trade volumes gained to 81 million shares compared with Thursday’s tally of 70 million shares. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs4.4 billion. DG Khan Cement was the volume leader with 15.2 million shares gaining Rs0.25 to finish at Rs20.36. It was followed by Fauji Fertilizer Bin Qasim with 6.9 million shares firming Rs2.13 to close at Rs59.9 and Fatima Fertilizer with 5.7 million shares increasing Rs0.93 to close at Rs25.26.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 29^th, 2011.