Stocks rise marginally as investors stay away

Karachi Stock Exchange benchmark 100-share index crawls up 0.17 per cent or 18.41 points at 11,163.43.

KARACHI: Stocks ended up in dull trade on Monday as investors remained on the sidelines ahead of the monetary policy announcement.

The Karachi Stock Exchange benchmark 100-share index crawled up 0.17 per cent or 18.41 points at 11,163.43.

The State Bank of Pakistan announced its monetary policy after trading hours and made another hike in the policy rate of 50 basis points to 14 per cent.

The bourse is expected to remain positive despite an increase in the discount rate since it has more or less been priced in by the market, said Topline Securities analyst Samar Iqbal.

Farrukh Khan’s appointment as the new Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) chairman was welcomed by investors but the news failed to provide impetus before the release of monetary policy statement, said JS Global Capital analyst Ahmed Rauf.

Trading volume slightly improved by 7.3 per cent to 90.3 million shares compared with Friday’s 84.2 million shares. Trade was dominated by second and third tier stocks. Limited activity from foreign investors was also blamed for the low volumes, dealers said.

Dewan group stocks led the market volume after an announcement that the group was in the process of selling Bawany Sugar.

Dewan Salman and Dewan Motors were the top two traded shares with volumes of 17.26 million shares and 6.43 million shares, respectively. Dewan Salman jumped Rs0.62 to close at Rs2.15 while Dewan Motors rose Rs0.12 to end at Rs1.54.

Nishat Chunian Limited (NCL), third on the volumes chart, closed at its lower circuit breaker on reports of local punters dumping the stock on rumours of weakening euro, dealers said. The scrip with 5.3 million shares fell Rs1.2 to close at Rs22.84.

Pakistan Oilfields closed up 0.87 per cent to Rs266.87 on rising oil prices in the international market.

Nestle Pakistan closed 2.75 per cent higher on reports of foreign funds accumulating the stock.

Fresh buying was also witnessed in small banking stocks as KASB Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland and Habib Metropolitan Bank prices increased by 12.9 per cent, 6.7 per cent and 4.2 per cent, respectively.

Shares of 386 companies were traded on the opening day of the week. At the end of the day, 189 stocks closed higher, 180 declined and 17 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs2.32 billion.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 30^th, 2010.