Market watch: Bourse takes a breather; investors book profits

Benchmark KSE-100 index sheds 40 points.

KARACHI: Karachi’s stock exchange lost some steam on Tuesday as frontline stocks succumbed to selling pressure after failing to invite renewed buying interest, leading investors to book profits.

“However, certain scrips remained on investors’ radar, as cherry-picking was seen in Lucky Cement, Pakistan Petroleum (PPL) and MCB Bank,” said Topline Securities equity dealer Samar Iqbal.

“Low-priced cement and communication stocks kept the turnover ticking,” said Escorts Capital COO Hasnain Asghar Ali. “The net impact on the benchmark, however, stayed negative because the Oil and Gas Development Company was under selling pressure. The decline in the heavyweight thus disallowed the 15,400 level to sustain.”

The Karachi Stock Exchange’s (KSE) benchmark 100-share index shed 0.26% or 40.36 points to end at the 15,388.13 points level.

“The oil sector was able to sustain gains due to a bonus payout with the PPL result, and expectations of a good payout in the Pakistan Oilfield [scrip] with the full year result due on September 15, 2012,” said JS Global analyst Shakir Padela.

“There was renewed buying interest seen in the banking sector on expectations of the approval of a deposit rate cut by the State Bank in the coming weeks. MCB Bank was able to close the day up by 1.3%, with volumes of 1.4 million shares,” he added.

Trade volumes dropped to 180 million shares, compared with Monday’s tally of 199 million shares. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs4.87 billion.

Shares of 358 companies were traded on Tuesday. At the end of the day, 138 stocks closed higher, 161 declined while 59 remained unchanged. Maple Leaf Cement was the volume leader with 17.46 million shares gaining Rs0.45 to finish at Rs8.71. It was followed by Pakistan Telecommunication Company with 15.80 million shares losing Rs0.01 to close at Rs19.03 and Pak Elektron with 11.21 million shares gaining Rs0.69 to close at Rs9.51.

Foreign institutional investors were buyers of Rsxx million and sellers of RsXX million, according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 5^th, 2012.