RECORDER REPORT
KARACHI: The Karachi share market staged recovery Friday to close 318.38 points or 0.95 percent higher at 33,775.12.
“Better than expected March quarter results lifted the market,” viewed Mohammad Rizwan of Topline Securities. The benchmark KSE-100 index remained northward throughout the day and was once seen at the session high at 33,803.25 points.
The trading turnover at the ready-counter remained better at 307 million shares against 348 million of the previous session. The traded value, however, slid from Thursday’s Rs 16.97 billion to Rs 15.36 billion. Of the total 354 scrips that changed hands, 192 went up, 141 went down and that of 21 remained unchanged.
The market capitalisation inched up to Rs 7.310 trillion from the earlier Rs 7.253 trillion.
The volume of foreign portfolio investment again settled in the red zone marking a net selling of $ 1.08 million.
KASB Bank kept leading the volume for the third consecutive day, closing at Rs 3.45 per share, increasing by 83.5 percent or Rs 1.57 compared to Rs 1.88 it had opened on Wednesday, April 22.
During last three days, over 123.3 million shares of the banking scrip changed hands, 45 million alone on Friday. The stock’s steady gains are mainly attributable to rumours in the market that the financially troubled bank was being acquired by a Chinese bank and that KASB had withdrawn its petition from Islamabad High Court against the central bank. The latter case was confirmed by the KASB through issuing a statement to the KSE.
Other best performers included Pak Elektron 26.5 million, Byco Petroleum 18.6 million, Ghani Automobile 17.9 million, D.G Khan Cement 13.3 million, K-Electric 13.2 million, Bank of Punjab 11.9 million, Dewan Motors 8.2 million, Jahangir Siddiqui Company 7.2 million and JS Bank Limited 7.0 million shares.
The futures trade surged to 64 million contracts for the day.
“Stocks closed bullish led by select scrips across-the-board on strong corporate results in banking, cement and insurance sectors,” said Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corp.
Rising global crude prices, speculations ahead of new State Bank policy rate stance amid falling PIB yields, easing political tension in the city and expected Rs 575 billion PSDP strategy for federal budget 2015-16 played a catalytic role in the bullish activity, he added.
In the banking stocks, UBL rallied after March’s earning announcements that beat the market expectations.
The PSMC announced impressive March earnings of Rs 11.50 which helped the stock close at five percent upper limit. “This brought renewed interest in other auto assemblers as well,” said analyst Rizwan.
Also, increasing international crude oil prices made the oil and gas exploration companies to rally with OGDC, POL and PPL gaining 2.4, 1.2 and 1.3 percent, respectively.
Backed by better earnings, DGKC continued its upward journey to close 4.28 percent higher. The market is expected to appear bullish in the days ahead primarily on the back of triggers like monetary easing, analysts said.
