Market watch: Strong results spur mid-week bull rally

Benchmark KSE-100 index climbs 151 points.

KARACHI: The bourse went only one way on Wednesday: the bulls – plowing through all claims of dented investor sentiment after Moody’s ratings downgrade – pulled the market up nearly 150 points in intraday trade.

The Karachi Stock Exchange’s (KSE) benchmark 100-share index surged 1.05% or 151.31 points to end at the 14,596.59 points level. Trade volumes shot up to 168 million shares compared with Tuesday’s tally of 105 million shares. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs5.44 billion.

“The KSE-100 index advanced 1% on the back of impressive results announcements,” reported JS Global analyst Mujtaba Barakzai. “In the cement sector, Lucky Cement rallied up to 0.6%, and DG Khan Cement rallied 1.7% over expectations of healthy results. Impressive production numbers from the Makori East field triggered interest in Pakistan Oilfields, which has a 21% stake in the field. Moody’s rating downgrade of Pakistani banks did not affect their stock prices, as most banks closed in the green zone.”

Shares of 367 companies were traded on Wednesday. At the end of the day 197 stocks closed higher, 82 declined while 88 remained unchanged.

“Continuous net foreign buying, coupled with excellent corporate results by United Bank and Hubco, helped the market close near the 14,600 points level after a gap of 10 weeks,” commented Topline Securities equity dealer Samar Iqbal.

Foreign institutional investors were net buyers of Rs509.33 million ($5.36 million), according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.

“Interestingly, volumes also increased – mainly led by Jahangir Siddiqui Company and DG Khan Cement,” continued Iqbal. “The Oil and Gas Development Company contributed 52 points to the index, as its share’s price rose by Rs2.70.”

Jahangir Siddiqui Company was the volume leader with 17.64 million shares gaining Rs1.00 to finish at Rs15.66. It was followed by DG Khan Cement with 12.46 million shares gaining Rs0.76 to close at Rs45.68 and Azgard Nine with 12.18 million shares gaining Rs0.53 to close at Rs7.22.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 19^th, 2012.