Market watch: Index suffers from Monday blues

Benchmark 100-share index falls 137.96 points

KARACHI: Oil stocks were to be blamed as the index lost some of its gains in recent days to end closer to the 36,000-point level on the opening day of the week.

As opposed to last week’s rally, bluechip stocks saw limited interest. A plunge in global oil prices and political uncertainty kept investors cautious.



On Monday, the KSE 100-index declined by 137.96 points or 0.38% to end at 36,084.67.

An analyst at Topline Securities said that selling in index-heavy oil stocks affected the benchmark KSE-100 index.

“Oil stocks declined in line with fall in international oil prices. After rallying in the last few sessions, auto stocks saw some profit-taking,” said the analyst.

“Engro Fertilizer’s (EFERT) June earnings remained slightly better than expectations; stock gained 0.4% with 12 million shares.”

Meanwhile, JS Global analyst Ahmed Saeed Khan said that volatility prevailed in the market as it juggled between -186 points and +110 points. “As global oil prices continued the downward trajectory, the sector remained under pressure,” said Khan.  “Oil stocks declined right from the beginning of the session with the exception of National Refinery Limited that gained 2.4% through the day.”

“Local cement dispatches clocked in at 4.19% higher therefore serving as a positive trigger for the sector, where major gainers in the sector were Cherat Cement Company Limited (+1.5%), DG Khan Cement  (+0.6%) and Maple Leaf Cement  (0.1%).”

Khan said that the auto sector remained under pressure with the exception of Hinopak Motors Limited (+5.00%) that continued its euphoric growth.

“EFERT announced its half year result with earning per share of Rs5.35/share (better than market expectation of Rs4-5), resultantly EFERT and Engro rallied to close the scrips +0.4% and +2.3% higher, respectively.”

Shares of 382 companies were traded during the day. Of these, 146 companies closed higher, 207 fell and 29 remained unchanged.

Trading volumes decreased to 264 million shares compared to 291 million on Friday.

Silk Bank (R) was the volume leader with 19.4 million shares, losing Rs0.02 to finish at Rs0.22. It was followed by Pakistan International Airlines (R) with 15.8 million shares, gaining Rs0.65 to close at Rs11.87 and EFERT with 11.7 million shares, gaining Rs0.36 to close at Rs98.87.



Foreign institutional investors were net buyers of Rs272 million worth of shares during the session, according to data compiled by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 11^th,  2015.

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