Market watch: Monetary policy continues to spur buying
Benchmark KSE-100 index gains 39 points.
KARACHI:
Investors continued to spur buying in anticipation of interest rate cuts in State Bank’s monetary policy announcement yesterday. Activity remained lacklustre in the oil and gas sector, whereas cement and banking sector witnessed active trading driving the bourse to close up.
The Karachi Stock Exchange’s (KSE) benchmark 100-share index closed up 0.23% or 38.51 points to end at 16,845.09 point level. Trade volumes improved but remained paltry at 130 million shares compared with Thursday’s tally of 119 million shares.
“Range bound activity was seen due to uncertainty on the quantum of interest rate cut,” reported Samar Iqbal, equity dealer at Topline Securities.
“Cements and textiles gained as the transporters’ strike ... was called off on Wednesday. Moreover, the expected cut in the discount rate brought with it a fresh interest and buying in the highly-leveraged cement sector,” said Nazim Abdul Muttalib, analyst at Elixir Securities.
Shares of 385 companies were traded on the final trading session of the week. At the end of the day 174 stocks closed higher, 158 declined while 53 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs4.09 billion.
Earlier, Italian oil company Eni has reportedly signed a deal with Oil and Gas Development Company (OGDC) to acquire a 25% stake and operatorship of the offshore Indus Block G licence, located in the Indus Basin. The 7,500-square-kilometre block in Pakistan is in ultra deep water of an underexplored and promising area offshore Pakistan. Index-heavyweight OGDC shed Rs0.05 to close at Rs189.41.
Banks managed to hold recent lows and churned higher volumes as talks of relaxation over minimum savings rate made rounds, brushing aside fears of decline in net interest margins in the coming quarter, said Sibtain Mustafa, analyst at Elixir Securities.
Maple Leaf Cement was the volume leader with 21.3 million shares gaining Rs0.80 to finish at Rs14.92. It was followed by Jahangir Siddiqui and Company with 8.51 million shares shedding Rs0.37 to close at Rs16.98 and DG Khan Cement with 8.22 million shares climbing Rs0.16 to close at Rs54.40.
Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs188 million, according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 15th, 2012.
Investors continued to spur buying in anticipation of interest rate cuts in State Bank’s monetary policy announcement yesterday. Activity remained lacklustre in the oil and gas sector, whereas cement and banking sector witnessed active trading driving the bourse to close up.
The Karachi Stock Exchange’s (KSE) benchmark 100-share index closed up 0.23% or 38.51 points to end at 16,845.09 point level. Trade volumes improved but remained paltry at 130 million shares compared with Thursday’s tally of 119 million shares.
“Range bound activity was seen due to uncertainty on the quantum of interest rate cut,” reported Samar Iqbal, equity dealer at Topline Securities.
“Cements and textiles gained as the transporters’ strike ... was called off on Wednesday. Moreover, the expected cut in the discount rate brought with it a fresh interest and buying in the highly-leveraged cement sector,” said Nazim Abdul Muttalib, analyst at Elixir Securities.
Shares of 385 companies were traded on the final trading session of the week. At the end of the day 174 stocks closed higher, 158 declined while 53 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs4.09 billion.
Earlier, Italian oil company Eni has reportedly signed a deal with Oil and Gas Development Company (OGDC) to acquire a 25% stake and operatorship of the offshore Indus Block G licence, located in the Indus Basin. The 7,500-square-kilometre block in Pakistan is in ultra deep water of an underexplored and promising area offshore Pakistan. Index-heavyweight OGDC shed Rs0.05 to close at Rs189.41.
Banks managed to hold recent lows and churned higher volumes as talks of relaxation over minimum savings rate made rounds, brushing aside fears of decline in net interest margins in the coming quarter, said Sibtain Mustafa, analyst at Elixir Securities.
Maple Leaf Cement was the volume leader with 21.3 million shares gaining Rs0.80 to finish at Rs14.92. It was followed by Jahangir Siddiqui and Company with 8.51 million shares shedding Rs0.37 to close at Rs16.98 and DG Khan Cement with 8.22 million shares climbing Rs0.16 to close at Rs54.40.
Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs188 million, according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 15th, 2012.