Stocks stage smart recovery

The new week commenced on a positive note Monday as the benchmark 100-index staged a smart recovery gaining 170 points to close at 25,773 points against 25,603 points Friday. During the intraday trading, the main index touched 25,896 highest and 25,603 lowest levels. The market capitalisation remained on the higher side closing at Rs 6.280 trillion against Rs 6.228 trillion. The trading side also witnessed a healthy trend rising to 283.428 million shares from 232.750 million shares.
Commenting on the market performance, analysts were of the view that the local bourse rallied 170 points making up for some of the loss from last week. MLCF result announcement was taken positively as the scrip gained more than 4 percent. This also reflected on other cement scrips as the sector remained in the limelight. With increasing trading volumes of Rs 8 billion, LPCL led the volume with 39mn shares followed by BOP Rights with 33mn shares and DCL with 23mn shares, they added.
They said news regarding increase in cement price and positive outcome on the OMC margin meeting changed investor sentiment. Also, strong buying in bluechips predominantly in ENGRO (+4.3 percent) and MLCF (+3.8 percent) helped the market to recover. Overall, 368 companies were marked active on the readyboard. Some 201 scrips posted gains while 154 lost their worth. Rates of 13 cos stayed unchanged.
Two top gainers for the day were Nestle Pak, which climbed by Rs 196 to Rs 8997 and Pak Tobacco, which shot up by Rs 33.60 to Rs 705.60. The top losers were Bata (Pak), which shed Rs 90 to Rs 2975 and Bhanero Textile, which lost Rs 37 to Rs 703. Of the Top 10 volume leaders, Lafarge Pak led the tally with 38m shares losing 45 paisa to close at Rs 11.55. Bank of Punjab (R) also lost 84.72 paisa to close at -86 paisa on some 32m shares; and Dewan Cement rose by 84 paisa to close at Rs 8.75 on 22m shares.
Maple Leaf Cement improved by 86 paisa to settle at Rs 28.91 on 18m shares; TRG Pakistan gained four paisa to Rs 12.78 on 16m shares; and Byco Petroleum moved up by 27 paisa to close at Rs 10.75 on 14m shares. Jahangir Siddiqui Company witnessed a loss of 64 paisa to close at Rs 11.66 on 13m shares; Engro Corporation rose by Rs 4.46 to close at Rs 189.96 on 10m shares; Fauji Cement gained 18 paisa to close at Rs 16.33 on 8m shares; and World Call Telecom bagged five paisa to close at Rs 2.55 on 6m shares.