Market watch: Bulls rally as stock market regains optimism

Benchmark KSE-100 index gains 226 points.

KARACHI:

The bulls had a field day at the stock market on Tuesday, staging a massive comeback rally after the last two sessions saw the benchmark index close in the red.

The Karachi Stock Exchange’s (KSE) benchmark 100-share index gained 1.73% or 225.61 points to end at the 13,303.33 point level.

The stock market regained some of its optimism witnessed over the past weeks, albeit amidst lower volumes than was seen in previous sessions. Trade volumes fell to 247.81 million shares compared with Monday’s tally of 256.86 million shares. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs5.14 billion.

JS Global Analyst Jawad Khan said that stocks witnessed renewed interest across the board: in cement, DG Khan Cement hit its upper limit for the day, while rumors of foreign buying in Lucky Cement helped the stock gain 3.6%. Engro hit its upper circuit breaker, after previous sessions saw it close in the red, on the company’s reassurance that it was expecting resumption of gas supply from Tuesday evening. The banking sector was led by MCB Bank which jumped 3.0%, followed by National Bank of Pakistan, that appreciated 1.3%. Volumes remained low in exploration and production; OGDC led volumes gaining 0.8%, followed by POL which gained 2.2% of stock value, said Khan.

Jahangir Siddiqui Company Limited topped volumes yet again with 43.53 million shares gaining Rs0.57 to finish at Rs17.96. It was followed by DG Khan Cement with 15.30 million shares gaining Rs1.51 to close at Rs31.81 and JS Bank Limited with 13.89 million shares gaining Rs0.96 to close at Rs6.78.

Foreign institutional investors were net buyers of Rs474.74 million, according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 21^st, 2012.