KARACHI: Thursday saw the Karachi bourse recover some more ground ahead of the State Bank’s monetary policy announcement and the calling off of a transporters’ strike that had paralysed entire logistics networks in the country. Investor participation, however, continued to be restricted to low levels.
“Shrinkage in the trade deficit by 9.93% in the five months to November 2012, the issuance of a statutory regulatory order regarding the used car imports policy and higher home remittances ... played a the role of a catalyst in bullish sentiments,” observed Ahsan Mehanti, analyst at Arif Habib Corp.
The Karachi Stock Exchange’s (KSE) benchmark 100-share index gained 0.37% or 61.98 points to end at the 16,806.58 points level. Trade volumes improved slightly to 119 million shares compared with Wednesday’s tally of 112 million shares. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs3.31 billion.
“Some further improvement was seen in the equity market amid hopes that the policy rate will come down in Friday’s monetary policy meeting,” reported Topline Securities’ equity dealer Samar Iqbal.
Shares of 380 companies were traded on Thursday. At the end of the day 210 stocks closed higher, 122 declined while 48 remained unchanged.
“Cements and textiles gained as the transporter’s strike ... was called off yesterday. Moreover, the expected cut in the discount rate brought with it a fresh interest and buying in cements,” said Nazim Abdul Muttalib, analyst at Elixir Securities.
“Engro Corp led the gainers, as investors favoured highly leveraged companies,” reported JS Global analyst Ovais Ahsan. “Banks sustained some selling pressure ... ahead of the monetary policy announcement.”
“PTCL remained in the limelight amid speculations that the international call rate case could be withdrawn” said Iqbal.
Pakistan Telecommunication Company (PTCL) was the volume leader with 11.12 million shares gaining Rs0.24 to finish at Rs17.32. It was followed by Byco Petroleum with 8.79 million shares gaining Rs0.50 to close at Rs11.42 and Maple Leaf Cement with 7.72 million shares gaining Rs0.28 to close at Rs14.12.
Foreign institutional investors were buyers of Rs453.2 million and sellers of Rs126.62 million, according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 14th, 2012.
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