Stocks up in thin trade as investors stay away

Stocks gain to close above 10,000 points in thin trade ahead of the monetary policy announcement later in the day.

KARACHI: Stocks gained to close above 10,000 points in thin trade on Wednesday ahead of the monetary policy announcement later in the day.

The Karachi Stock Exchange benchmark 100-share index moved in a narrow range of 66 points before closing up 0.41 percent or 41.18 points at 10,022.25.

Later, the State Bank of Pakistan raised its key policy rate by 50 basis points to 13.5 per cent for the subsequent two months. Analysts were divided this time with one half predicting a hike while others expecting no change.

Volumes at the bourse remained low amid uncertainty about the interest rate, said Topline Securities equity dealer Samar Iqbal. Turnover plummeted 47 per cent to 46 million shares from 86.74 million shares on Tuesday. Majority of the shares were second tier stocks.

Shares of 385 companies were traded during the day. At the end of the day, 172 stocks closed higher, 192 declined and 21 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded was Rs1.61 billion.

Interest was seen in Attock group shares ahead of fiscal year 2010 result announcement, added Iqbal. Both Attock group companies - Pakistan Oilfields and Attock Petroleum Limited - were up by 0.4 per cent and 1.6 per cent, respectively.

Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) continued to rally and closed up 3.1 per cent following an increase in unaccounted-for-gas allowance to 7 per cent by the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority that provided them interim relief, the analyst said.

Silkbank Limited was the volume leader with 4.83 million shares gaining Rs0.1 to finish at Rs2.81. It was followed by SSGC with 4.59 million shares gaining Rs0.89 to close at Rs29.63 and Lotte Pakistan PTA with 3.3 million shares losing Rs0.03 to close at Rs8.72.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 30^th, 2010.