Market watch: Bourse back on bull track

Benchmark KSE-100 index rises 111 points.

KARACHI: The stock market recovered in line with the regional markets, closing higher on Thursday but trading remained lacklustre as most of the volumes were recorded in third-tier stocks.

The Karachi Stock Exchange’s (KSE) benchmark 100-share index rose 0.42% or 111.06 points to end at 26,862.51.

“DG Khan Cement (DGKC +1.01%) was the only notable blue chip in the top 10, churning out trading in 7.5 million shares after announcement that it would unveil its earnings next week on February 12,” said Muhammad Raza Rawjani of Elixir Securities.



Oil stocks saw healthy volumes with Oil and Gas Development Company (OGDC +0.66%), Pakistan Petroleum (PPL -0.22%) and Pakistan Oilfields (POL -0.55%) each trading over 0.5 million shares over reports of commencement of production in Makori East 3 field.

Jahangir Siddiqui and Company (JSCL +7.64%) led the volume charts and closed at its upper price limit after the recent bull-run in KSE increased JSCL’s discount to its book value to 30%, Rawjani added.

“With investors excited over the disbursement of IMF’s third tranche, the approval for which is expected over the weekend, we expect mood at the bourse to remain upbeat with the market likely to test 27,000 index levels,” he concluded.

Meanwhile, Ovais Ahsan of JS Global Capital said the privatisation minister’s comments to the media reiterating an aggressive sell-off target for state enterprises reinvigorated the bulls.

“Market direction is expected to remain sensitive to the mood in the global market scenario and a positive momentum regionally will keep the market bullish going forward,” Ahsan added.

Trade volumes fell to 254 million shares compared with Tuesday’s tally of 300 million.



Shares of 404 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 202 stocks closed higher, 180 declined and 22 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs8.1 billion.

Jahangir Siddiqui and Company was the volume leader with 34.4 million shares, gaining Rs1 to finish at Rs14.09. It was followed by the Bank of Punjab (Rights) with 22.6 million shares, gaining Rs0.12 to close at Rs2.91 and Azgard Nine with 11.1 million shares, gaining Rs0.13 to close at Rs9.59.

Foreign institutional investors were net buyers of Rs28 million worth of shares, according to data compiled by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 7^th, 2014.

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