Business

Stock market climbs as volumes get healthy

The weather got pleasant at the stock market on Tuesday as the index and volumes both climbed.

Express July 28, 2010

The weather got pleasant at the stock market on Tuesday as the index and volumes both climbed.

The approval of margin trading product by the KSE board gave an early impetus to the market while better-than-expected fertiliser sector results strengthened it, said JS Global Capital analyst Ahmed Rauf.

The Karachi Stock Exchange’s (KSE) benchmark 100-share index gained 0.87 per cent or 89.14 points to end at 10,386.82.

Members of the KSE board of directors on Monday agreed to forward a concept paper on margin trading.

The market is expected to remain positive in the near term with the ongoing corporate result season, said Elixir Securities analyst Nazim Abdul Muttalib. Volumes jumped 79 per cent to 71.97 million shares as investors purchased fertiliser sector shares, analysts said.

Focus of investors is also on the monetary policy statement due on July 30, dealers said. A survey of 35 fund managers was conducted to see what changes they expected in the interest rate. Most of them expected the status quo to be maintained and the discount rate to remain unchanged at 12.5 per cent.

Shares of 390 companies were traded during the day. Of these 212 stocks closed higher, 155 declined and 23 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs3.8 billion.

Fauji Fertiliser Bin Qasim Limited (FFBL) was the volume leader with 10.7 million shares traded after the company announced a net profit of Rs1.72 billion for January-July 2010 compared with Rs498 million in the same period last year. FFBL stock price rose 2.91 per cent to end at Rs30.42.

Hub Power Company (Hubco) was a surprise second with 8.1 million shares traded after talk about the company’s Narowal project coming online before the anticipated date brought on some fresh participation, said Muttalib. The company’s stock price increased Rs0.98 to end at Rs35.51.

Nishat Mills Limited came third with 5.1 million shares gaining 2.7 per cent to close at Rs51.85 on news that the government decided to abolish regulatory duty on export of yarn on Monday.

Foreign investors made net investments worth $1.27 million on Monday, buying 4.26 million shares and selling 1.76 million, according to data released by the National Clearing Company.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 28^th, 2010.