Driven by a strong positive outlook about the ongoing earning announcement session, the Karachi share market on Tuesday peaked to another historic high of 17,172.04 points.
Having witnessed the lowest close of 765.74 points some 14 years ago on July 14, 1998, the benchmark KSE-100 share index on Tuesday was at one point seen climbing to the intra-day high of 17,181.39 points.
The day saw the index gaining 167.05 points or 0.98 percent to close at 17,172.04 points against Monday’s 17,004.99 points. During the day the index also dipped to the intra-day low of 16,990.58 points.
The free-float KSE-30 index also set in the green zone and increased by 147.96 points to 14,044.29 points compared to 13,896.33 points of the previous session.
Of the total 360 scrip trades, 184 ended up as gainers, 154 as losers and 22 saw no change in the price of their stakes.
“The stocks closed at all time high led by blue chip stocks across the board on strong earnings outlook,” viewed Ashen Mehanti, a senior equity analyst and director at Arif Habib Securities.
The analyst said the trading volumes remained high amid speculations ahead of the major earning announcements due this week.
The trading turnover at the ready-counter was recorded at 197 million, up by 8 million shares against Monday’s 189 million.
According to KSE data, the benchmark index had marked the highest turnover of 1.122 billion shares in the last decade on April 16, 2004. On that day the market capitalisation was recorded at Rs 1.489 trillion against Rs 4.285 trillion on Tuesday.
Telecard Limited appeared to be Tuesday’s volume leader by counting its traded shares at 34.705 million. The company’s share price rose during the day from Rs 2.71 to close at Rs 3.43.
Fauji Cement, D.G Khan Cement, Engro Corporation, WordlCall Telecom, Jahangir Siddiqui Company, Maple Leaf Cement, Byco Petroleum, Engro Foods and TRG Pakistan were other well-performing stocks on Tuesday. On the futures market, the turnover rose to 13.8 million shares from 8.98 million of a day earlier.
Other contributable factors cited by the stocks analysts for Tuesday’s all time high included falling treasury yields and record earning announcements for the cement and oil sector stocks.
These stimuli, Mehanti said, played a catalyst’s role in the bullish activity at KSE despite the investors’ concern for the falling fertilizer take off data.
Tuesday’s boom took the total paid up capital at the KSE to over Rs 1.094 trillion. This figure had staggered at Rs 211.313 billion on July 14, 1998 when the KSE-100 share index had nosedived to the lowest close of 765.74 points.
The maximum increase of 960.50 points in the index, the KSE said, was witnessed on June 24, 2008 when the benchmark index had closed at 12,122.67 points. While at maximum the index had dropped by 696.25 points to close at 14,075.83 points on the 31st of December 2007.
According to KSE market highlights, the highest market capital of Rs 4.329 trillion was recorded at the country’s largest bourse on December 31, 2007, the day when the KSE-100 share index plunged to the lowest level of 765.74 points.
KSE benchmark index breaks previous records
