Market watch: KSE continues rally as cement rebounds

Benchmark KSE-100 index rises 72.97 points.

KARACHI: The stock market continued its upward trend into the new week as petroleum and cement sectors resurged.

The Karachi Stock Exchange’s (KSE) benchmark 100-share index rose 0.32% or 72.97 points to end at 22,838.84 points.

“The KSE-100 Index closed in the green with market volume of 212 million shares traded today. The cement sector remained in the limelight after the release of figures by the All Pakstan Cement Manufacturers Association showing an increase in off-take of 15%MoM.” Said Adeel Jafri of JS Global.

“Pakistan equities welcomed the first day of the week on a positive note picking up on last week’s momentum however closed with trimmed gains on selling at 23,000. Lagging energy names Pakistan Petroleum PPL (PA +1.2%) and Oil and Gas Development (OGDC PA +0.4%) picked up as value hunters eyed high yield plays.” Said Farees Baig of Elixir Securities.



Baig went on to add “Cements also regained some of the lost glory over positive rumours relating to the marketing arrangement between cement players. Kohat Cement (KOHC PA +5%) hit the upper price circuit earlier during the day, while LUCK gained +2.2% along with Cherat Cement (CHCC PA +1.4%) that closed in the green. However, investors chose to book profits in DG Khan Cement (DGKC PA -0.7%) along with financials that seemed lacklustre as expectations of status quo in the upcoming monetary policy statement kept investors at bay.”

Trade volumes fell to 212 million shares compared with Friday’s tally of 245 million shares.



Shares of 343 companies were traded on Monday. At the end of the day 171 stocks closed higher, 133 declined while 39 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs9.5 billion.

Pakistan International Airlines was the volume leader with 17.7 million shares gaining Re1 to finish at Rs8.03. It was followed by Bank of Punjab with 15.4 million shares losing 0.36 to close at Rs12.6 and Maple Leaf Cement with 13.7 million shares gaining Rs0.51 to close at Rs23.7.

Foreign institutional investors were net buyers of Rs110 million, according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 10^th,  2013.

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