Market watch: Caution prevails but index closes positive

Benchmark KSE-100 index gains 255.8 points.

KARACHI: After plummeting by over 500 points on Thursday, the bourse ended the week positive with index names seeing recovery.

At close on Friday, the Karachi Stock Exchange’s (KSE) benchmark 100-share index rose 0.82% or 255.8 points to end at 31,494.84.

“Stocks opened positive and traded up, however, turnover was significantly down; lowest this month, and nearly 50% of the week’s average as investors traded cautiously,” said Faisal Bilwani of Elixir Securities.



“E&P plays; Pakistan Petroleum (PPL PA +1%) and Pakistan Oilfields (POL PA +1.6%) were up on local institutional buying while investors largely ignored Thursday’s proposal of gas tariff hike.

“As expected, retail driven small and mid-caps led volumes as the wider market ended the day near key support level of 31,500.

“We see political developments over the weekend to guide direction early next week and expect index to recover and test 32,000 as index names see fresh local institutional buying. We recommend PPL, ENGRO, DGKC, NBP and MCB,” said Bilwani.

Meanwhile, JS Global Securities analyst Fahad M Ali said the clarification on the suspension and settlement of one of the most established brokerage houses took the front page.

“Stocks across the board rallied where auto and pharmaceutical sectors led the board.

He said that volumes remained relatively low as some people decided to stay aside until political noise settled.

“We recommend investors to remain cautiously bullish in the market targeting pharma, autos and banking sectors on dips,” Ali concluded.

Trade volumes fell to 170 million shares compared to 253 million on Thursday.



Shares of 374 companies were traded on the last trading session of the week. Of these, 81 companies declined, 276 closed higher while 17 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs9.6 billion.

Jahangir Siddiqui and Company was the volume leader with 19.5 million shares, gaining Rs1 to close at Rs15.84. It was followed by Pakistan International Airlines Company with 15.1 million shares, gaining Rs0.82 to close at Rs6.61 and Lafarge Pakistan with 7.2 million shares, gainging Rs0.39 to close at Rs16.50.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs99 million worth of shares during the trading session, according to data compiled by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 22^nd, 2014.

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