KSE creeps up 31 points

KARACHI: Stocks went up slightly on Thursday after the market fell consecutively during the first three days of the week. Trade volumes also improved as announcements of better-than-expected corporate results seemed to mildly boost investor confidence.

The market started off with thin volumes and remained largely lacklustre up until ICI announced its first half results which beat analysts’ estimates, according to Jawad Khan from JS Global Capital. An equity dealer also termed ICI’s result announcement “the major excitement for the day.”

The benchmark 100-share index at the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) closed 0.32 per cent or 30.56 points higher at 9,584.37 points.

Shares of 360 companies were traded on Thursday. At the end of the day, 192 stocks closed higher while 149 declined and 19 remained unchanged. The value of the shares traded during the day was approximately Rs1.7 billion.

“Even though the market volume increased, the value of shares traded remained low,” commented Hasnain Asghar Ali, an analyst at Aziz Fidahusein and Company. He added that a trade value higher than Rs2 billion would be an encouraging sign.

A turnover of 63.45 million shares was recorded during the day, almost 38 per cent more than Wednesday’s trade volume.

Lotte Pakistan PTA led the market with a turnover of 21.2 million shares. The company announced its results for the first half of the current year with earnings per share of Rs1.44 – compared with earnings of Rs0.8 per share in the same period last year.

Shares traded in Lotte were three times higher than the next volume leader, accounting for more than 30 per cent of the total volume on Thursday.

The company’s stock went up by almost 10 per cent to close at Rs8.26 per share.

Meezan Bank Limited followed with seven million shares traded during the day. The scrip gained Rs0.74 to close at Rs15 per share.

With 3.7 million shares traded, Arif Habib Securities was the third market leader. The stock gained just 0.17 per cent to close at Rs23.71.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 27^th, 2010.