Market Watch: Stock market closes week on a healthy note

Investors return to telecom stocks on hopes of better results.

KARACHI:

The stock market closed a stellar week with a range bound session that nonetheless saw the market stay in the black. The market has been on an upsurge ever since official inflation figures for the month of March were announced earlier this month.

“Stocks closed on a record high, led by second- and third-tier stocks on strong valuations,” said Ahsan Mehanti, analyst at Arif Habib Corp. “Sentiments remained bullish ahead of quarter-end earnings announcements due next week. Consolidation in blue-chip stocks continued amid concerns for a fall in global commodities,” he added.

The Karachi Stock Exchange’s (KSE) benchmark 100-share index gained 0.12% or 22.59 points to end at the 18,636.03 points level. Trade volumes fell to 207 million shares, compared with Thursday’s tally of 246 million shares. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs6.59 billion.

“Renewed buying interest was seen in the telecom sector amid hopes of better March earnings,” reported Topline Securities’ Senior Manager Equity Sales Samar Iqbal. “Major activity remained in mid-cap stocks,” she added.

Shares of 368 companies were traded on Friday. At the end of the day 159 stocks closed higher, 168 declined while 41 remained unchanged. Bankislami Pakistan was the volume leader with 19.37 million shares, gaining Rs0.36 to finish at Rs6.66. It was followed by Pakistan Telecommunication Company with 16.10 million shares, gaining Rs0.57 to close at Rs21.23; and Engro Polymer with 16.01 million shares, losing Rs0.05 to close at Rs11.58.

“The KSE, on the last trading day of the week, witnessed some profit-taking as the KSE-100 index closed up 0.1% after making an intraday high of 0.6%,” said JS Global Capital analyst Mujtaba Barakzai. “Major profit-taking was seen in the cement and fertiliser sectors,” she added. “Political uncertainty kept investors sidelined, as investors have pinned their hopes on fundamentally strong stocks ahead of the corporate results season.”

Foreign institutional investors were buyers of Rs221.37 million and sellers of Rs323.70 million, according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 6^th, 2013.

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