Market watch: Index rebounds after correction throughout the week

Benchmark KSE-100 index rises 175 points.

KARACHI: The stock market finally picked up on Friday after almost a week of corrections as regional markets helped push the index higher.

The Karachi Stock Exchange’s (KSE) benchmark 100-share index rose 0.66% or 174.83 points to end at 26,782.47.

“Equities rebounded sharply to recover from earlier losses following sentiments of regional markets,” said Harris Ahmed Batla of Elixir Securities. “However, some late selling trimmed earlier gains as the index settled to close around 26,783 from the day’s high of 26,853.”



The day was completely dominated by cement shares as investors anticipated lower Consumer Price Index reading coupled with earnings excitement on the back of higher cement dispatches for the preceding quarter. This caused DG Khan Cement (+4.6%), Maple Leaf Cement (+4.3%) and Fauji Cement (+3.9%) to gain strength. Engro Fertilizer (+5%) saw volumes for the first time since its listing, Batla added.

Ovais Ahsan of JS Global said, “The day though belonged to the penny stocks and third-tier names with stocks like Bank of Punjab, Bank of Punjab (rights) and Azgard Nine (3.36%) accounting for almost 40% of trading volume.”

The sugar sector saw some activity on the back of first-quarter results with most companies reporting losses during a seasonally weak time for the industry while companies with exposure to ethanol production like Mirpurkhas Sugar (-0.21%) recovered from day’s lows as prospects of greener bottom lines in the post-GSP
Plus scenario attracted savvy investors, Ahsan added.

Trade volumes remained relatively stable at 346 million shares compared with Thursday’s tally of 344 million shares.

Shares of 408 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 208 stocks closed higher, 185 declined and 15 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs12 billion.

Bank of Punjab (R) was the volume leader with 53.3 million shares, gaining Rs0.37 to finish at Rs3.07. It was followed by Fauji Cement with 38.6 million shares, gaining Rs0.63 to close at Rs16.84 and Bank of Punjab with 24.7 million shares, losing Rs0.5 to close at Rs12.17.



Foreign institutional investors were net buyers of Rs311 million worth of shares, according to data compiled by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 1^st,  2014.

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