Stocks flat in first trading day of week

KARACHI: Stock market remained almost flat on Monday as uncertainty on the political front remains intact, analysts said.

The Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) benchmark 100-share index ended 0.28 percent or 27.35 points higher at 9,936.79 level.

After the Supreme Court adjourned the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) cases during the day, the market went down to touch a low of 9,833 points, however, during rumours of foreign buying later on helped the market recover the losses incurred in the morning session, said JS Global Capital Muzzamil Mussani.

The market is expected to be guided by political news flow along with key policy rate decision on Wednesday, said analysts.

The State Bank of Pakistan is scheduled to announce the monetary policy tomorrow (Wednesday) for the subsequent two months. The central bank raised its key policy rate by 50 basis points to 13 percent in July. Analysts are divided this time with some predicting a similar hike this time around while the other half put their money on the rate to remain unchanged.

Turnover improved by a heft 42 per cent to 69 million shares compared with 48.57 million shares on Friday.

Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) and Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited (SNGPL) both closed in the green on the back of news that Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority) ay relax the benchmark for unaccounted for gas (UFG) losses, said Mussani.

SSGC closed at its upper circuit for the day at Rs27.54 while SNGPL was up by 0.03 per cent to close at Rs31.

Shares of 393 companies were traded on Monday. At the end of the day 183 stocks closed higher, 187 declined while 23 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs1.66 billion.

TRG Pakistan was the volume leader with 13.3 million shares gaining Rs0.31 to finish at Rs4.17. It was followed by Lotte Pakistan PTA with 7.91 million shares increasing Rs7.9 million shares to close at Rs8.87 and SilkBank with 3.77 million shares dropping Rs0.02 to close at Rs2.67.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 28th, 2010.