Index gains 72.08 points

The KSE-100 index gained 72.08 points during the week ended on December 25, 2010 and closed at 11,858.17 points. Trading remained low and the average daily volume at the ready counter declined to 100.21 million shares, by 32.4 percent, as compared to previous week's 148.21 million shares.
Market capitalisation increased by Rs 18 billion to Rs 3.222 trillion. Foreign investors' support continued with a net inflow of $5.5 million.
On Monday, the market opened on a positive note and the index increased by 57.56 points to close at 11,843.65 points with volume of 113.285 million shares.
On Tuesday, the investors opted for profit taking and the index lost 18.59 points to close at 11,825.06 points with 116.800 million shares.
On Wednesday, late buying supported the index to gain 23.56 points to close at 11,848.62 points with 93.442 million shares.
On Thursday again, the investors resorted to profit taking and the index declined by 55.79 points to close at 11.792.83 points with 90.504 million shares.
On Friday, investors' interest revived and the index recovered 65.34 points to close the week at 11,858.17 points with 87.013 million shares.
Saeed Khalid, analyst at Invest Capital and Securities, said that despite positive sentiment on the economic front and the trade agreement between Pak-China valuing $35 billion; the index marked an increase of merely 0.6 percent during the week, although it still managed to reach highest level since July 2008. However, the major negative news on the economic front was related to SBA program by the IMF, where Pakistan sought a delay of another 9 months due to non-implementation of key tax reforms. However, on the positive side, news regarding the payment of Rs 35 billion to PSO by the Ministry of Finance regarding the roaring circular debt issue marked a positive activity in the OMCs, mainly in PSO on the last trading day of the week.
Rabia Tariq at JS Global Capital said though there was some political noise from key coalition partners initially, the market opened on a positive note following Chinese PM's visit. However, later on in the week, typical profit taking trend before year end was witnessed. Textiles like NML and NCL were exceptions, boosted by rising cotton prices, while news reports of likely payment of Rs 35 billion by Ministry of Finance to Pakistan State Oil (PSO) to ease its financial woes caused the stock to rally up 2.8 percent.
With rising cotton prices in the international and local markets, textile sector witnessed an increase of 3 percent in its capitalisation with NML and NCL (up 3.4 percent and 2 percent) mainly in the limelight. News of Engro's new fertiliser plant likely to attain CoD in the 2nd week of January 2011 and increase in urea prices by Rs 190/bag, caused the scrip to gain 2 percent. PSO rallied on MoF assuring Rs 35 billion payment to ease its financial burden from the circular debt issue.