Equities firmer

Equities remained bullish following expectations for higher dividend payouts in select bluechips. Starting the day with Monday''s 34,157.11 points, the benchmark KSE-100 index gained 119.17 points index and rallied to hit the session high of 34,497.46 before closing at 34,270.28. Foreign investors appeared confident to make net buying of portfolios worth $ 4.79 million. The trading volume at the ready counter was recorded at a healthy 404 million shares, lower than previous day''s 450 million.
The value of stocks traded declined to Rs 18 billion from Rs 22 billion of last session. Of the total 377 scrips traded, 177 posted gains, 172 lost their worth while 28 scrips remained unchanged. The issues which saw status quo in their prices included the day''s volume leader, K-Electric, which opened and closed at Rs 8.10 with 31.4 million turnover.
Other best performing stakes included Byco Petroleum 24 million, Dewan Cement 22 million, Arif Habib Corp 21 million, Jahangir Siddiqui Company 20 million, Pace (Pvt) Limited 16.4 million, Fauji Cement 16 million, Engro Fertiliser 15.7 million, Pakistan International Bulk Terminal 15.5 million and Pak Elektron 14.7 million shares. The market capitalisation escalated to Rs 7.37 trillion from Rs 7.35 trillion of last session. Futures trade, however, landed in the red to close at 43.56 million contracts compared to Monday''s 55.91 million.
"Stocks closed bullish led by second and third-tier scrips on strong earnings outlook," viewed Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corp. Trade, the analyst said, remained high in the post-budget session amid recovery in oversold banking stocks impacted by super tax and uniform tax. The day''s catalyst, Mehanti said, were expectations for higher dividend payouts in selected bluechip oil and cement and auto stocks. JS analyst Umair Hasan said after the recent rally in cement stocks, profit-taking was witnessed with DGKC and MLCF ending 0.13 and 3.05 percent lower. While FCCL and LUCK could post marginal gain of 0.80 and 0.85 percent.
"Post-budget hit on the banking sector ended today as mixed sentiment prevailed amongst banking scrips," he said. ABL, BAFL, HBL and UBL recovered to gain 1, 1.4, 2.4 and 1.8 percent. Side-board scrips, Umair said, remained in the limelight with BYCO, JSCL and PIBTL showing strong volumes. Amongst significant news, CHCC''s expansion plans in the north coupled with government policies facilitating its plan translated into a run on its stock ending at its upper-circuit for the second day in a row.