Market watch: Bulls return amid eight-month high volumes

KSE-100 up 51 points, 233m shares traded.

KARACHI:
Rising oil prices, approval of development projects by the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) and improved oil refinery capacity utilisation data for November were taken positively by investors despite concerns of rising inflation, according to analysts.

“News that the branded stocks of equity markets will be on sale at the London stock exchange along with rising trends in international oil prices supported the accumulation stance in selected stocks,” commented Hasnain Asghar Ali from Aziz Fidahusein and Company.

The benchmark KSE-100 index gained 51.06 points or 0.44 per cent to close at 11,620.15 points.

Trade volumes raced to an eight-month high of slightly over 233 million shares, up almost 20 per cent from the 195 million shares traded on Thursday.

Shares of 387 companies were traded on Friday. At the end of the day, 252 stocks closed higher, 117 declined and 18 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded was recorded at Rs4.89 billion.


“Interestingly, second and third tier stocks dominated volumes,” commented Mohammad Rameez from Elixir Securities.

The Dewan Salman Fibre (DSFL) stock led the market with a trade of 23.37 million shares. The stock gained Rs0.03 to close at Rs3.67. “DSFL remained the volume leader on the rumours of its debt restructuring followed by KESC due to its losses recovery,” said Samar Iqbal, an equity dealer.

Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) came in second with a turnover of 21.59 million shares, gaining 15 per cent to end at Rs3.16.

Lotte Pakistan PTA (LOTPTA) followed. “Pakistan Oilfields (POL) and LOTPTA remained in the limelight and the oil sector, with the exception of Byco, generally performed better because of increased capacity of the refineries,” added Arsalan Khan from JS Global Capital.

LOTPTA strengthened Rs0.3 to close at Rs13.33 per share.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 11th, 2010.
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