Market watch: KSE seesaws, but manages to close up barely in the black

Benchmark KSE-100 index rises 26 points.

KARACHI: Volatility prevailed at the Karachi bourse on Tuesday with the index barely managing to close in the black after riding the see-saw all day long. The fertiliser and cement sectors picked up the momentum to keep the index afloat the 23,500-level mark.

The Karachi Stock Exchange’s (KSE) benchmark 100-share index rose 0.11% or 25.46 points to end at the 23,683.27-point level. Trade volumes climbed marginally to 333 million shares compared with Monday’s tally of 327 million shares.



It was a volatile day as the index heavy stocks swayed from deep red to black and took the index riding along with them, reported Fareesa Baig, analyst at Elixir Securities.

Profit-taking was witnessed on various technical levels, but stocks with strong fundamentals stood their ground on decent trading levels with higher level of investor activity, said Mujtaba Barakzai, analyst at JS Global Capital.

Engro Corporation bounced back from an intraday low of 3%, while National Bank of Pakistan hit upper lock on reported foreign buying after hitting an intraday low of 2%. Cement stocks, on the other hand, performed well over anticipation of strong upcoming earnings, with Maple Leaf Cement, Cherat Cement and Lucky Cement ending the day on a positive note.

Most oil and energy names closed in the red on profit-taking, with Pakistan Petroleum being an exception following news of gas discovery in Sindh – the company’s fourth discovery announcement since the elections. The banking sector trotted directionless with NBP and Habib Bank standing out, while other banking stocks were not able to keep up with the momentum.



Pakistan Telecommunication Company almost made it to its upper lock with the news of a cash payout accompanied with its results.

Shares of 364 companies were traded on Tuesday. At the end of the day 161 stocks closed higher, 159 declined while 44 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs13.18 billion.

Bank of Punjab was the volume leader with 69.08 million shares falling Rs0.99 to finish at Rs14.03. It was followed by Fauji Cement with 26.18 million shares gaining Rs0.23 to close at Rs15.18 and National Bank of Pakistan with 23.84 million shares climbing Rs2.51 to close at Rs57.16.

Foreign institutional investors were buyers of Rs1.13 billion and sellers of Rs15.23 billion million worth of equity, according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 24^th, 2013.

Like Business on Facebook, follow @TribuneBiz on Twitter to stay informed and join in the conversation.