Market watch: Despite macro concerns, bourse continues upward trend

Benchmark KSE-100 index rises 94 points.

KARACHI:

Despite economic uncertainty coupled with Moody’s caution on macroeconomic indicators, the Karachi bourse regained its upward momentum touching an intraday high of 17,499 points. Activity remained confined in small and mid capitalised stocks.

The Karachi Stock Exchange’s (KSE) benchmark 100-share index rose 0.54% or 94.62 points to end at 17,477.94 points. Trade volumes fell to 269 million shares compared with Thursday’s tally of 311 million shares.

“In spite of a market consensus that the State Bank will keep the interest rate at the same levels, investors preferred to buy in anticipation of better earnings and payouts,” reported Samar Iqbal, equity dealer at Topline Securities.

Askari Bank ventured onto the investors radar after the Fauji-led consortium announced the acquisition of the entire shareholding of the bank from the Army Welfare Trust at a 30% premium, from Thursday’s close, to the market price. The news led Askari to top the volume charts.

The telecom sector yet again attracted the most activity on better than expected performance for 2012 due to higher international calling rates, said Elixir Securities analyst Nazim Muttalib. Five of the top ten on the volume leader board belonged to the telecom sector.

Shares of 372 companies were traded on Friday. At the end of the day 211 stocks closed higher, 109 declined while 52 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs5.42 billion.

Askari Bank was the volume leader with 24.58 million shares gaining Rs0.99 to finish at Rs19.69. It was followed by Jahangir Siddiqui and Company with 20.24 million shares gaining Re1to close at Rs18.04 and Worldcall Telecom with 19.84 million shares climbing Rs0.07 to close at Rs3.62.

The Oil and Gas Development Company closed up 0.8% at Rs194.49 on the back of continued foreign interest and contributed 17 points to the index said Khalil Usmani, analyst at JS Global Capital.

Foreign institutional investors were net buyers of Rs74.28 million, according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.

“With interest rates maintained in line with market expectations, result announcements will keep guiding the market while politics will also continue to influence sentiments as elections draw nearer,” said Muttalib.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 9^th, 2013.

Like Business on Facebook to stay informed and join in the conversation.