KARACHI
The Karachi Stocks Market peaked to another all-time high on Wednesday on the back of, what equity analysts believe, renewed interest the offshore investors shown in the oil and banking stocks.
The KSE 100-sharte index closed at a historic 29,458.15 points, gaining 362.38 points or 1.25 percent against Tuesday’s 29,095.77 points.
The National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited (NCCPL) counted the trading activities of foreign investors at $ 4.653 million or Rs 465.338 million.
The offshore investors, who the market observers say traded mostly in banking and oil stocks, bought stakes worth Rs 1.265 billion against their gross selling of Rs 800.605 million.
“Stocks closed all time high on renewed foreign interest in oil and banking stocks on S&P and Moody’s rating agencies indication for improved ratings on performance,” viewed senior stocks analyst Ahsen Mehanti.
The trading turnover at the ready-counter was recorded higher at 391.6 million shares, 50 million shares up from 386.6 million of the previous day.
The total equities traded lost value to Rs 14.06 billion compared to Rs 15.8 billion of the last trading session. Of the total 381 scripts traded 205 appreciated, 145 depreciated and 31 remained unchanged.
The market capitalisation remained almost flat at Rs 7.08 trillion against Tuesday’s Rs 7.00 trillion.
The free-float KSE 30 index also upped by 1.27 percent or 259 points to close at 20,569.62 points.
The banking stocks dominated the list of 10 best performing scripts with Jehangir Siddiqui Company topping the list by having 33.4 million of its listed shares traded at a price ranging from Rs 13.15 to Rs 13.59.
NIB Bank came second with 33.3 million shares, JS Bank 20.6 million, Bank Al-Falah 17.5 million, K-Electric 17.4 million, Faysal Bank 17.3 million, Bank of Punjab 16.8 million, NBP 16.3 million, TRG Pakistan 14.5 million and Maple Leaf Cement 14.16 million shares.
On future market, over 27.66 million shares depicted a downward trend against Tuesday when the turnover at 28.61 million shares. Of the scripts traded 126 ended up in green zone, 11 in red while two remained unchanged.
Mehanti, a director at Arif Habib Corporation, said speculations ahead of quarter end earning announcements and strong rupee appreciation against the dollar amid expectations for major foreign exchange inflows on account of Eurobond receipts and 3G/4G telecom licence auctions on April 23 played a catalyst role in the day’s bullish activity.
The rupee, augmented by improved foreign inflows and positive market sentiments, traded Wednesday at Rs 97.50 on the kerb market. The State Bank, on the other hand, set and notified the inter-bank exchange rate for Thursday at Rs 96.6.
This bull-run on KSE, the analyst said, was despite an uncertain situation in textile stocks on conflicting reports on demands for 10 percent rebate for textile exporters impacted by the rupee appreciation.
Samar Iqbal, assistant vice president at Topline Securities, said the banking stocks led the market.
“Most of the leading banks like UBL, ABL, BAHL, NBP and MEBL closed at upper 5 percent upper limit and MCB gained 4 percent,” the analyst added.
While a pre-result rally was seen in ATRL and POL as the Attock group would announce their results Thursday (today).
Renewed interest was also seen in the PSO and NML, Samar said.
