Market watch: Bourse continues on the correction path

Benchmark KSE-100 index falls 30 points.

KARACHI:

The country’s largest bourse continued to walk on the path of correction amidst volatility where the index closed marginally down. Investors continue to bank profits with volumes confined in select retail-driven small and mid cap stocks.

The Karachi Stock Exchange’s (KSE) benchmark 100-share index shed 0.13% or 30.34 points to end at the 23,284.81-point level. Trade volumes fell to 202 million shares, compared with Monday’s tally of 249 million shares.

“Correction continued at the bourse where the index closed down. During the trading session, KSE-100 was a yo-yo between the red and the black zone,” reported Fahad Ali, analyst at JS Global Capital.

“Mixed sentiments were observed amongst investors today where mutual funds continued to book gains across the board,” Ali added.



The cement sector, however, managed to gain some lost ground in spite of the government scrapping major infrastructural projects in the name of austerity. According to JS Global Capital’s Ali, the cement sector has plunged by more than 10% in the last couple of trading sessions.

Moreover, analysts believe interest in the cement sector is likely to continue to remain strong on earnings expectations and payout excitement.

Other sectors including banks and oil marketing companies generated bullish interest from both local and foreign investors and healthy accumulation was witnessed where National Bank of Pakistan closed at its respective upper lock. Index heavy Pakistan State Oil managed to close in the positive territory on expectation of healthy payout in upcoming results.



Shares of 345 companies were traded on Tuesday. At the end of the day 127 stocks closed higher, 182 declined while 36 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs10.28 billion.

Fauji Cement was the volume leader with 34.21 million shares losing Rs0.66 to finish at Rs16.17. It was followed by Maple Leaf Cement with 17.46 million shares falling Rs0.39 to close at Rs30.62 and National Bank of Pakistan with 16.95 million shares climbing Rs2.76 to close at Rs57.97.

Foreign institutional investors were buyers of Rs658 million and sellers of Rs576 million worth of equity, according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 31^st, 2013.

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