Business

Market watch: Results unable to provide momentum to bourse

Benchmark KSE-100 index rises five points.

Our Correspondent October 23, 2012

KARACHI: The local bourse went up to a high of 15,937 points, however, profit taking near the close of the session pulled the market down to close flat. Announcement of the index heavyweight Oil and Gas Development Company’s quarterly results also failed to attract the bulls.

The Karachi Stock Exchange’s (KSE) benchmark 100-share index rose 0.03% or 5.21 points to end at 15,853.84 point level.

“Profit taking at the end of the session caused index to remain flat,” said Samar Iqbal, equity dealer at Topline Securities.

Trade volumes fell to paltry level of 103 million shares compared with Monday’s tally of 143 million shares.

Shares of 371 companies were traded on Tuesday. At the end of the day 175 stocks closed higher, 147 declined while 48 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs3.9 billion.

Pre-result buying in DG Khan Cement kept the stock in the limelight as investors anticipate healthy earnings announcement today.

Cement, oil and gas stocks witnessed selling pressure even OGDC’s results announcement were in line with market consensus, however less than expected payout weakened investor sentiments, according to JS Global Capital analyst Mujtaba Barakzai. In fertiliser stocks, Engro Corporation did not witness any positive momentum owing to pending uncertainty on the gas curtailment issue, added Barakzai.

Engro is under bearish influence at the local bourse over expectations of resolution of gas supply to its Enven plant on the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines (SNGPL) network.

Earlier, the SNGPL said that it will be unable to provide further gas to fertiliser producers on its network due to low gas pressure. The SNGPL network includes Pakarab Fertilizer, Engro Enven, Agritech Limited and DHFL fertiliser plants.

DG Khan Cement was the volume leader with 7.17 million shares gaining Rs0.55 to finish at Rs51.77. It was followed by Jahangir Siddiqui and Company with six million shares losing Rs0.44 to close at Rs14.49 and Pace Pakistan with 5.45 million shares rising Rs0.25 to close at Rs3.52.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs0.9 million, according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 24^th, 2012.