Market watch: Stock market closes its best year since 2009

Index is up a whopping 49% since the beginning of this year.

KARACHI: The stock market closed on the last day of the calendar year with the index in the red territory, after positive sentiment from the release of Coalition Support Funds by the US failed to ward off a selling spree as the session neared its close.

The Karachi Stock Exchange’s (KSE) benchmark 100-share index lost 0.22% or 37.86 points to end at the 16,905.33 points level. Trade volumes grew to 178 million shares compared with Friday’s tally of 154 million shares. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs4.44 billion.

The stock market was close to rounding 2012 off above the key 17,000 points psychological barrier: it breached the level during the early hours of trading, before investors lost heart and booked profits. It would have been a formidable achievement, given that the KSE-100 index opened the year at a much lower 11,339.21 points. Nonetheless, Elixir Securities’ analyst Faisal Bilwani points out that 2012 was the best year for Pakistan since 2009, with the index gaining nearly 49% over the year, behind only Turkey and Egypt. In comparison, the MSCI Asia index (ex Japan) gained only 22% over the year, he added.

“The story today was no different from the last few days, with small- and mid- caps leading the volumes charts while the broader market was primarily flows driven,” said Bilwani.

“Volumes were witnessed in the cement sector, as investors are expecting better-than-expected off-take for the month of December,” reported Shakir Padela, analyst at JS Global. Byco Petroleum was the volume leader with 16.32 million shares gaining Rs0.53 to finish at Rs14.45. It was followed by the Bank of Punjab with 12.53 million shares gaining Rs1.00 to close at Rs10.70 and Pakistan Telecommunication Company with 11.98 million shares gaining Rs0.24 to close at Rs17.35.

“Engro Corp was positive on reported higher fertiliser sales,” reported Bilwani. “PTCL was up 1.1% as investors place bets on better quarterly earnings.”

“The Bank of Punjab remained in the limelight after news of recovery of funds,” said Topline Securities’ equity dealer Samar Iqbal. “Volumes also showed some sign of improvement as the year-end factor is fading out,” she added.

Foreign institutional investors were buyers of Rs379.86 million and sellers of Rs274.35 million, according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 1^st, 2013.                 

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