“After $7.4 million selling on Thursday, investors remained cautious ahead of the weekend. Profit-taking was witnessed in cement stocks, while selective buying was seen in key fertiliser companies in hopes that the June quarter-end result would be better [than the previous quarter’s,” reported Samar Iqbal, equity dealer at Topline Securities. “Hubco remained in the limelight after news of the resolution of Narowal tariff issue.” Nepra has notified the tariff for the Hub Power Company’s Narowal plant, leading the stock to remain in the limelight by the end of this week.
The Karachi Stock Exchange’s (KSE) benchmark 100-share index rose marginally by 0.07% or 9.60 points to end at the 13,665.80 points level.
“KSE-100 index pared gains to close marginally up, as investors booked profits ahead of the weekend despite the approval of the finance bill by the National Assembly and reports that some development is expected in the reopening of Nato supply routes over the weekend,” said JS Global analyst Jawad Khan.
Trade volumes declined nominally to 109 million shares compared with Thursday’s tally of 114 million shares. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs3.79 billion.
“Cement stocks underwent mild pruning as Lucky closed down 0.8%, while DG Khan Cement slid 1.0% over institutional selling. The exploration and production sector showed some initial promise over expectations of better payouts with full year results, but low volumes didn’t help [sustain] the momentum – leading to flattish closings. Bulk of the volumes was witnessed in second tier names,” Khan observed.
Shares of 341 companies were traded on Friday. At the end of the day 137 stocks closed higher, 120 declined while 84 remained unchanged. Jahangir Siddiqui Company was the volume leader with 16.15 million shares gaining Rs0.19 to finish at Rs14.20. It was followed by Azgard Nine with 11.64 million shares gaining Rs1.00 to close at Rs6.90 and DG Khan Cement with 8.22 million shares losing Rs0.41 to close at Rs41.22.
Foreign institutional investors were buyers of Rs175.76 million and sellers of Rs391.08 million, according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 16th, 2012.
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