Market Watch: Bourse recovers as volumes reach two-year high

Benchmark KSE-100 index gains 26 points.

KARACHI:

The stock market staged a recovery yesterday with volumes touching a two-year high, after profit-taking saw the index dip on Wednesday.

The Karachi Stock Exchange’s (KSE) benchmark 100-share index rose 0.20 per cent or 26.44 points to end at the 13,271.39 point level.

The cement sector was the major gainer of the day, as investors bought stocks on news of dispatch numbers that indicated increased domestic sales by 7 per cent year-on-year in the first eight months of the current fiscal year. Fauji Cement topped volumes with Lafarge Pakistan Cement running second. Lafarge Pakistan was also one of the top gainers of the day, with share price improving 20.43 per cent.

Fauji Cement led volumes with 44.3 million shares traded, gaining Rs0.05 to finish at Rs 5.49. It was followed by Lafarge Pakistan with 33.3 million shares, gaining Rs0.57 to close at Rs3.36 and Azgard Nine with 18.5 million shares, gaining Rs 0.57 to close at Rs7.85.

Trade volumes rose to 358.1 million shares due to retail investor interest in smaller cement companies.

The exploration and production sector remained lacklustre as uncertainty about future international oil prices prevailed due to lower Chinese growth figures, according to JS Global Analyst Shakir Padela. Pakistan Petroleum Limited lost 1.2 per cent of its stock value, while Oil and Gas Development Company slipped 0.9 per cent.

Shares of 391 companies were traded on Thursday. At the end of the day 227 stocks closed higher, 87 declined while 77 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs 5.88 billion.

Foreign institutional investors were net buyers of Rs96.09 million, according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 9^th, 2012.