Market watch: Index closes strong, nears 28,000 mark

Benchmark KSE-100 index gains 366.52 points.

KARACHI: The index closed strong with reports of the country’s weight in the MSCI Frontier Market Index possibly increasing to over 8% during the May 2014 review, bringing forth renewed excitement.

At close, the Karachi Stock Exchange’s (KSE) benchmark 100-share index rose 1.33% or 366.52 points to end at 27,932.02

“Just a few points short of the glorious 28,000, Oil and Gas Development Company (OGDC PA +2.6%) traded green, keeping up with recent momentum with fears of foreign selling having dissipated,” said Fareesa Baig of Elixir Securities.



“Lucky Cement (LUCK PA +3.2%) saw considerable gains for a second consecutive day, over expectations of being included in the MSCI Frontier Market Index. Meanwhile, financials namely United Bank (UBL PA +3.3%) and MCB Bank (MCB PA +0.92%) attracted investor interest over reported foreign participation.

“Textile giant Nishat Mills (NML PA +3.06%)  gained strength over morning news of surging export figures, with stock recovering after having declined over 13% during the past month,” said Baig.

Meanwhile, Fahad M Ali of JS Global said that CPI inflation clocked in at 8.53% year-on-year as per expectations. “This, along with the finance minister’s commitment on foreign exchange reserves above $10 billion, was fulfilled in the third quarter that created positive sentiments in the market.”

“We expect the market to remain bullish for the next couple of sessions with major sectors to target being fertilisers, banks and cements,” he concluded.

Trade volumes slightly rose to 249 million shares compared with Tuesday’s tally of 220 million.



Shares of 377 companies were traded on Wednesday. At the end of the day, 222 stocks closed higher, 128 declined while 27 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs11.3 billion.

Summit Bank was the volume leader with 30.1 million shares, gaining Rs0.60 to finish at Rs4.08. It was followed by Lotte Chemical Pakistan Limited with 17.2 million shares, losing Rs0.13 to close at Rs7.90 and Lafarge Pakistan with 16.3 million shares, gaining Rs0.26 to close at Rs11.55.

Foreign institutional investors were net buyers of Rs806 million, according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 3^rd, 2014.

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