Market watch: Index posts recovery, ends in black

Benchmark KSE-100 gains 233.09 points.

KARACHI: After the plunge on Monday, the market posted a recovery despite witnessing a volatile day as the index swung in a range of 1,000 points.

At close, the Karachi Stock Exchange benchmark 100-share index gained 0.83% or 233.09 points to end at 28,304.50.



Elixir Securities analyst Sibtain Mustafa  said morning trade pushed the index down 1.5% to test 27,500 levels as panic sellers continued to offload.“However, the index soon recovered to make an intraday high of 28,466,” said Mustafa. “This was because state institutions provided much-needed support with almost all blue chips recovering losses and ending the day near highs.”

“Monday’s foreign institutional investor’s inflow along with local institutional value buying provided much needed support to anxious investors as politics continues to dampen sentiment.

“MCB Bank (MCB) +1.2% recovered morning losses as the bank announced earnings in line with estimates while payout was slightly better than expectations.

“We prefer dividend plays and would recommend aggressive positions in banking sector preferably BAFL, NBP and HBL,” he said.

Meanwhile, JS Global analyst Fahad M Ali said the market sentiments will continue to be sensitive to the political situation. “Hence, we recommend a defensive strategy with high dividend yield stocks preferred plays.”

Trade volumes fell to 168 million shares compared with Monday’s tally of 215 million.



Shares of 350 companies were traded on Tuesday. Share prices of 148 companies declined, 185 closed higher while 17 remained unchanged at the end of the day. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs9.2 billion.

TRG Pakistan Limited was the volume leader with 19 million shares, losing Rs0.35 to finish at Rs10.28. It was followed by the Bank of Punjab with 18.8 million shares, gaining Rs0.10 to close at Rs7.67 and Maple Leaf Cement with 13.4 million shares, losing Rs0.90 to close at R27.42.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs601 million during the trade session, according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 13^th, 2014.

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