Market watch: Stock market ends on a high note on last day of trading

Benchmark KSE-100 index rises 100 points.

KARACHI: The stock market ended on a positive note today, pulling up the KSE-100 index on the last day of the week.

The Karachi Stock Exchange’s (KSE) benchmark 100-share index rose 0.46% or 100.41 points to end at 21,775.39 points.

“Pakistan equities closed 100 points up on the last trading day of the week, after having increased almost 1% during the day on thin volumes. Despite morning news of circular debt now standing at Rs157bn, among the top gainers was Pakistan State Oil (PSO PA +2.1%) while other oil names like Pakistan Oil Fields (POL PA +1.5%) and Pakistan Petroleum (PPL PA +0.5%) also contributed to the rise, as they gained strength over reported local interest” said Fareesa Baig of Elixir Securities.



“Hub Power Company (HUBC PA -1.7%) remained in the limelight on reported local selling while financials relatively underperformed with MCB Bank (MCB PA -0.3%), Bank Al Habib (BAHL PA -0.9%), Bank Alfalah (BAFL PA -1.2%) along with National Bank (NBP PA +0.9%) that attracted attention at these levels and closed marginally green,” Baig added.

“A positive closing was witnessed at the bourse for the week ended October 11. KSE-100 index throughout both the trading sessions hovered in the positive zone, making a high of 21,945 points,” said Fahad Khan of JS Global.

“Volumes still remained low at the bourse, however value buying was observed in certain stocks like PSO, PTC, ENGRO and the cement sector,” Khan added.

Trade volumes fell slightly to 92 million shares compared with Thursday’s tally of 98 million shares.

Shares of 312 companies were traded on Friday. At the end of the day 184 stocks closed higher, 102 declined while 26 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs3.6 billion.



Hub Power Company was the volume leader with 6.7 million shares losing Rs1.05 to finish at Rs59.86. It was followed by Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited with 5 million shares losing Rs0.01 to close at Rs25.87 and Telecard Limited with 4.9 shares gaining Rs0.08 to close at Rs5.81.

Foreign institutional investors were net buyers of Rs210 million, according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 12^th, 2013.

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