Index rises despite attacks

Positive trend continued at the Karachi share market on Thursday mainly due to foreign investors' support and the KSE-100 index gained another 41.13 points to close at 9,845.74 points level. The foreign investors' interest continued despite terrorist attacks in different cities of the country and a fresh inflow of 5.8 million dollars of foreign portfolio investment was recorded at the local equity market on Thursday.
The market opened on a positive note and the index hit 9,930.79 points intra-day high level, up 126.18 points. However, the investors opted for profit taking due to law and order situation, which minimised the intra-day gains. Trading activities also shrank as the daily volumes at ready counter declined to 214.452 million shares as compared to 220.564 million shares traded on Wednesday.
The overall market capitalisation increased by Rs 10 billion to Rs 2.855 trillion. Out of the total 427 active scrips, 223 closed in negative and 179 in positive, while the value of 25 scrips remained unchanged. PTCL was the volume leader with 19.681 million shares and gained Re. 0.17 to close at Rs 20.98.
Fresh buying was seen in the E&P sector, as OGDC, PPL and POL surged by Rs 3.02, Rs 5.99 and Rs 3.63 to close at Rs 114.17, Rs 198.15 and Rs 228.91 with 19.643 million shares, 10.783 million shares and 7.668 million shares respectively.
Jahangir Siddiqui Co lost Rs 1.29 to close at Rs 39.52 with 18.103 million shares. Arif Habib Sec declined by Rs 1.60 to close at Rs 46.67 with 11.881 million shares. Fauji Fertiliser Bin Qasim gained Re. 0.16 to close at Rs 26.97 with 8.004 million shares. Engro Chemical Pak increased by Rs 3.10 to close at Rs 182.38 with 7.647 million shares.
Netsol Technology surged by Re. 0.67 to close at Rs 29.55 with 7.418 million shares. Engro Polymer increased by Re. 0.99 to close at Rs 22.90 with 7.327 million shares.
Rafhan Maize and Bata (Pak) Limited were the highest gainers and gained Rs 85.55 and Rs 18.86 to close at Rs 1829.99 and Rs 900.00 respectively while Nestle Pakistan and Al Ghazi Tractors were the worst losers and lost Rs 37.50 and Rs 8.70 to close at Rs 1212.50 and Rs 231.49 respectively.
Ahsan Mehanti at Shehzad Chamdia Securities said positive activity was witnessed as oil crosses 75 dollars and global capital markets surge. The index took mild correction during the session due to terrorist incidents in Lahore, however, continuing foreign interest, expectation of strong quarterly result announcements and expectation of early approval of leverage products by the SECP played a catalytic role in positive activity.