RECORDER REPORT
KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) Wednesday witnessed a bullish trend on the back of local investors and institutional support. The benchmark KSE-100 index registered a healthy increase of 698.19 points to close at the level of 49,455.86 points.
The market opened on a positive note and the index hit 49,516.10 points intra-day high. However, it closed at slightly lower level due to profit-taking in select stocks at the fag end. Foreign investors remained net sellers of shares worth $8.4 million.
Trading activity also improved significantly due to healthy buying as daily trading volumes increased to 356.136 million shares as compared to 316.857 million shares traded Tuesday. The market capitalization increased by Rs 127 billion to Rs 9.854 trillion. Out of total 417 active scrips, 311 closed in positive, only 89 in negative while the value of 17 stocks remained unchanged.
K-Electric was the volume leader with 68.699 million shares, however it lost Rs 0.12 to close at Rs 10.28 followed by Dost Steels that increased by Re 1 to close at Rs 14.13 with 19.251 million shares. Aisha Steel Mill surged by Rs 1.07 to close at Rs 23.64 with 18.661 million shares.
Wyeth Pak and Rafhan Maize were the top gainers with Rs 205.00 and Rs 136.97, respectively to close at Rs 4,311.00 and Rs 7,637.00. Sanofi-Aventis and Siemens Pak were the top losers with Rs 48.50 and Rs 39.64, respectively to close at Rs 2,331.50 and Rs 938.93.
Nabeel Haroon at JS Global Capital said that positivity prevailed in the market as the index gained around 698 points to close at 49,456 level. ISL gained to close on its upper circuit as the steel company announced that its board of directors in its meeting approved an expansion plan of its manufacturing facilities by addition of a Cold Rolling Mill, pickling line and related facilities. CSAP in the steel sector gained to close on its upper circuit as investors viewed the financial result for first half of FY17 declared by the company positively.
FEROZ in the pharmaceutical sector lost value to close on its lower circuit on the back of the news that Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) has decided to bring coronary stents and tube-shaped medical devices under a controlled price regime. The major index movers were HUBC (+3.81 percent), SEARL (+4.95 percent) and HBL (+0.97 percent).
An analyst at Global Securities said that bargain hunters dominated the market as local bourse recovered 698 points during the session after demonstrating a bearish spell since the past two days. Investors’ regained interest after SECP gave its ruling to not trade in excess of debit limits. Major gainers emerged as HUBC (3.81 percent), SEARL (4.85 percent), HBL (0.97 percent), BAHL (3.75 percent) and PSO (2.76 percent) contributed 211 points to the index. TRG, EFOODS, ISL and INIL closed at their upper circuits on the back of positive statements as Friesland announced further investment plans in Pakistan, while ISL announced expansion plans to take capacity to one million MT; double its existing capacity. Losers turned out to be OGDC (-1.06 percent), MCB (-0.51 percent) and FFC (-0.6 percent), taking away 41 points from the index.
