The bull-run prevailed on the Karachi stocks market Wednesday as selected blue-chip stocks kept investors’ interest in hold on strong valuations.
The primary catalyst for the positive trend was again the international credit rating agency’s, Moody’s, favourable remarks on IMF’s $6.64 billion loan for the dollar-hungry Pakistan. The day saw the benchmark KSE 100-share index gaining 239.51 points or 1.04 percent to close at 23,231.68 points compared to 22,992.17 points of Tuesday.
The free-float KSE-30 index also set in the positive side having gained 100.15 points to close at 17, 959.96 points as compared to 17,859.81 points of the previous day. “Bullish trend continued amid investor interest in selected blue chip stocks across the board on strong valuations,” viewed Ahsen Mehanti of Arif Habib Corporation. The analyst said positive remarks by Moody’s on IMF loan sanction, gas discoveries in oil sector, rising trend in car sales data depicting 4 percent YoY growth, expectation of reform action plan for ailing State-Owned Enterprises and early approval of 3G licences auction in telecom sector played a catalyst role in bullish activity. This, the analyst said, was despite the investors’ concerns for security unrest in the city after the strike call by a major political leadership. The trading turnover at the ready-counter was recorded higher at 269.73 million shares against 265 million shares traded a day earlier. The scrips traded also moved upward in terms of value and climbed to Rs 10.15 billion against the previous Rs 9.7 billion. Of the total 354 scrips traded on the day 222 gained value, 105 lost and 27 remained unchanged.
The market capital rose by Rs 4 billion to Rs 5.69 trillion from Rs 5.65 trillion of the previous trading session. PIA appeared as a volume leader of the day by counting 20.55 million of its listed shares traded. The scrip appreciated by 13 paisas by closing at Rs 7.89.
Other well performing equities were Fauji Cement, PTCL, KESC, Maple Leaf Cement, Bank of Punjab, TRG Pakistan, Jhangir Siddiqui Company, Telecard Limited and Engro Foods. The future marker closed bearish as the trading turnover declined to 25.28 millions shares from 27.49 million shares of Tuesday.
