Market watch: Index closes on record high

Benchmark KSE-100 index gains 404 points.

KARACHI: The index marched past the 28,000 barrier after Wednesday’s reports of an increase in Pakistan’s weight in MSCI Frontier Market index firmed up overnight, pushing market constituents to recent highs.

At the end of the day, the Karachi Stock Exchange’s (KSE) benchmark 100-share index rose 1.45% or 404.34 points to end at 28,336.36.



“Major gains were seen in Bank Al Habib (BAHL PA +5%), Pakistan State Oil (PSO PA +2.3%) and Lucky Cement (LUCK PA +4.3%), recently added to the FM index,” said Muhammad Raza Rawjani from Elixir Securities.

“Likewise, most other index constituting companies also closed deep in green with Oil and Gas Development Company (OGDC PA +2.4%), National Bank (NBP PA +3.7%) and Pakistan Petroleum (PPL PA +1.7%) leading the pack over continued institutional interest from local and foreign clients.

“United Bank (UBL PA -0.9%) was the only MSCI FM index company to close in red on profit taking post its outperformance in the last few trading sessions.

“With over $21 million net foreign buying in the last three trading sessions, foreigners’ activity will continue to be among the main drivers while optimism on macros and excitement on earnings will keep interest in broader market alive. We continue to favour energy and financials however, see a breather ahead of the weekend,” Rawjani advised.

JS Global Analyst Syed Faran Rizvi commented along the same lines. “We expect the bullish trend to continue in the market,” said Rizvi. “Foreigners’ inflow and participation from local institutions indicate that the market is likely to remain in the bullish zone and we prefer cement and banking stocks.”

Trade volumes rose to 449 million shares compared with Wednesday’s tally of 249 million.



Shares of 386 companies were traded on Thursday. At the end of the day, 222 stocks closed higher, 140 declined while 24 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs14.2 billion.

Lafarge Pakistan was the volume leader with 62.3 million shares, gaining Rs0.49 to finish at Rs12.04. It was followed by NIB Bank Limited with 48.9 million shares, gaining Rs0.39 to close at Rs2.79 and Summit Bank with 38.2 million shares, gaining Rs0.46 to close at Rs4.54.

Foreign institutional investors were net buyers of Rs918 million, according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 4^th, 2014.

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