RECORDER REPORT
KARACHI: Supported by leveraged stocks from cement, fertilizer and textile sectors, the Karachi share market stayed bullish Tuesday gaining 97.15 points. The KSE-100 index increased to 35,921.71 points from 35,824.56 of the previous session. The benchmark index remained volatile and was seen juggling between -171 points and +135 points to finally settle in the green zone.
The trading volumes were healthy at 311 million shares valuing up at Rs 13.51 billion against 201 million worth Rs 9.59 billion a day earlier.
The number of scrips traded stood at 377 of which the most lost value. Of the total only 148 could end up appreciating while 202 faced losses and that of 26 remained unchanged. Also, the market capitalisation moved southward to contract to Rs 7.714 trillion from Monday’s Rs 7.721 trillion.
Foreign investors added $ 5.04 million more to $ 579,553 net buying they had made during last trading session.
The list of most traded issues was topped by TRG Pakistan with 28 million shares turnover. The scrip opened at Rs 38.50 but lost value to close at Rs 37.32.
Others were Pace Pakistan 21 million, Silk Bank (Right) 21 million, K-Electric 13 million, SSGC 11.6 million, Ghani Automobile 10.5 million, Fauji Cement 10 million, Jahangir Siddiqui Company 8.3 million, DG Khan Cement 8 million and Byco Petroleum 7.5 million shares.
“Small cap stocks like TRG, PACE and SILK Rights remained most active scrips,” noted Samar Iqbal, a vice President at Topline Securities.
Futures trade moved up to 31.4 million contracts from 17 million of the previous day.
Commenting on the day’s trend, Arif Habib analyst Ahsan Mehanti attributed the bull-run to positive CPI inflation data for Jul’15 that slid to 12-year low of 1.8 percent YoY.
“Leveraged stocks in cement, fertilizer and textile sectors outperformed the index amid hopes for a fall in SBP key policy rates next month,” he said, adding recovery in global oil prices supported oil stocks near the session close.
“Speculations ahead of major corporate earning results due this week played a catalytic role in higher close at KSE,” said Mehanti.
Samar of Topline saw renewed interest in cement stocks that, she believes, helped the market to post some gains with rising volumes.
“Expectations of better June earnings helped cement rallying,” she said. The cement giants - MLCF, LUCK and DGKC gained 5, 1.5 and three percent, respectively.
ENGRO and EFERT also kept attracting institutional investors with auto sector supporting the market sentiment along with cements and fertilizers. While PIOC, MLCF, EFERT and FFC appeared as top gainers of the day by posting 4.7, 4.8, 1.8 and 1.1 percent gains, auto scrips like MTL and HINO also appreciated by 1.6 and 5.0 percent.
“Moving forward, we expect volatility to continue and short-term correction from these levels is expected,” viewed Ahmed Saeed Khan of JS Research.
