Market watch: Bourse back on upswing as telecos steal most volumes

Benchmark KSE-100 index gains 65 points.

KARACHI:

After closing in the red daily over the last three sessions, the local bourse jumped back on the last trading day of the week to close above the 15,200 points level.

“After a fall of 1.5% over the last three trading sessions, the market rebounded,” observed equity dealer Samar Iqbal, from Topline Securities. “Once again, volumes were skewed towards the telecom sector: it contributed over 45% of the volume traded today, with follow up buying on developments on [the implementation of] International Clearing House. Telecard, WorldCall Telecom and Pakistan Telecommunication Company (PTCL) topped the volumes.”

“Buying interest was also seen in Engro Corp, amid hopes of a resolution of its gas curtailment issues,” she added.

The Karachi Stock Exchange’s (KSE) benchmark 100-share index added 0.43% or 65.42 points to end at the 15,253.95 points level. Trade volumes surged to 227 million shares, compared with Thursday’s tally of 181 million shares. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs4.93 billion.

“Easing political concerns after the government and its allies reached an agreement on the Local Government system; investor interest in oversold stocks on higher global commodities; speculations for easing in the policy rate; and pending implementation of the International Clearing House mechanism for the telecom sector played the role of catalyst in bullish sentiments at the KSE,” offered Ahsan Mehanti, from Arif Habib Corp.

Telecard Limited was the volume leader with 50.25 million shares gaining Rs0.69 to finish at Rs3.45. It was followed by WorldCall Telecom with 31.05 million shares gaining Rs0.20 to close at Rs3.24 and Pakistan Telecommunication Company with 21.57 million shares gaining Rs1.00 to close at Rs20.57.

Foreign institutional investors were buyers of Rs90.57 million and sellers of Rs217.71 million, according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 8^th, 2012.