Market watch: Bourse consolidates ahead of corporate results

Benchmark KSE-100 index climbs 52 points.

KARACHI: Positivity reigned, albeit mutedly, in the country’s largest stock market from the get-go on Monday. The bourse consolidated near the 14,400 points level while investors wait for the Supreme Court’s verdict on the NRO judgement and the results season picks up steam.

“Institutional support was witnessed in blue-chip stocks in oil, banking and cement sectors after improvement in Pakistan-US relations; granting of licence to Pakistan Petroleum to explore in Iraq; and speculations ahead of the release of the US Coalition Support Fund amounting to $1.5 billion; despite concerns for Moody’s bond downgrade,” reported Ahsan Mehanti from Arif Habib Corp.

The Karachi Stock Exchange’s (KSE) benchmark 100-share index gained 0.36% or 52.29 points to end at the 14,384.58 points level. Trade volumes slumped to 74 million shares, compared with Friday’s tally of 112 million shares. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs2.92 billion.

“Partial recovery was seen at the Karachi Stock Exchange, led by cement stocks. Though volumes remained low, investors are keenly waiting for the June results which will likely come in [within the next] few weeks,” commented Samar Iqbal, equity dealer at Topline Securities.

Shares of 356 companies were traded on Monday. At the end of the day 143 stocks closed higher, 113 declined while 100 remained unchanged.

“Major gainers of the day included Engro Foods, on the expectations of a good result tomorrow; while ICI Pakistan closed the day on its upper circuit as rumours of a bid above current market price circulated in the market,” said JS Global analyst Shakir Padela. “Investors stayed cautious as the result season approaches amid political uncertainty, and expect lacklustre activity in the month of Ramazan starting this weekend. DG Khan Cement also ended the day up 2.6% as market participants are expecting a cash dividend in the scrip on the back of better-than-expected earnings this year.”

DG Khan Cement was the volume leader with 17.92 million shares gaining Rs1.15 to finish at Rs44.64. It was followed by NIB Bank with 6.69 million shares gaining Rs0.06 to close at Rs2.38 and Engro Foods with 5.13 million shares gaining Rs3.32 to close at Rs69.82.

Foreign institutional investors were net buyers of Rs169.50 million ($1.78 million), according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 17^th, 2012.