Despite the negatives like a widening current account deficit, government’s ever-rising budgetary borrowings from banks and continued increase in international oil prices; the investors’ sentiments at the Karachi stocks market are positive thus helping the benchmark index keep a southward journey to hit, what the analysts believe, 13,000 point level. Monday saw the KSE 100-share index gaining 37.14 point or 0.29 per cent to close at 12,743.66 points against, what the market observers said, a high of 12,706.52 points of Friday last week. The index hit the intraday high of 12,790.52 points before plunging to the intraday low of 12,654.00 points.
The turnover at the ready counter was recorded at 205.790 million shares compared to the previous 192.346 million. The trading value, however, slightly moved down to Rs6.330 billion from Friday’s Rs6.749 billion.
The market capitalization rose to Rs3.319 trillion against Rs3.310 trillion of the previous session. Of the total 365 scrips traded, 145 appeared as gainers, 151 losers while 69 remained unchanged. The turnover in the future contract also closed lower and slid to 13.234 million shares from 23.275 million of the last trading day of the previous week. “As the KSE 100 waves through better corporate results, higher oil and fertilizer prices, along with positive vibes regarding earlier release of the CGT-related SROs, we expect market to continue its upward march,” said Yawar Uz Zaman of InvestCap.
However, the analyst said, market sentiment also depended on the political situation of the country and associated foreign flows. “Our top picks for the coming week are ENGRO, FFC, FFBL, ODGC, PPL, POL and DGKC,” he said. The cement sector led by D.G Khan Cement (DGKC), the dealers said, played as a catalyst in the Monday’s bullish trend.
Jahangir Siddqui Company being the volume leader of the day counted its traded shares at 22.36 million with each of its shares priced at Rs10.50 in the opening and Rs10.49 in the closing. The cement giants, including D.G Khan Cement, Lafarge Pakistan and Fauji Cement, also performed well and saw their traded shares at 20.89 million, 17.39 million and 12.85 million shares, respectively. Generally, the market observers believe, the Karachi bourse was moving up on the back of positive like improvement in Pak-US relations, the government’s announcement on Balochistan package, renewed foreign interest, record rise in international oil prices near to $123 and bullish global stocks.
