Stocks showed recovery Wednesday to close at 32,287.41, up 73 points or 0.23 percent. The KSE-100 index moved both ways to hit the intraday high and low of 32,558.61 and 32,048.70 points, respectively. "Stocks showed recovery at the quarter end close after bullish rally in global equities and renewed institutional interest in oversold oil stocks," said Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corp.
The analyst said recovery in WTI crude prices, expectations for upbeat CPI inflation data for Sep'15 and IMF approval on release of over $500 million tranche under the Extended Fund Facility played a catalytic role in the day's positive close. He said investors were concerned over dismal fertilisers off-take data for Aug'15 and falling banking spreads. "After Tuesday's clarification by the SECP and NAB about the investigation on brokers, the market witnessed strong opening but with thin volumes," viewed Fahad M Ali of JS Research.
The bulls fizzled out and soon participants booked profits pushing the benchmark index into the red zone, said the analyst. "However, during the day volumes picked up and the... index remained range bound fluctuating in the range of +346 and -164 points," he said. Trading volume surged to 209.5 million shares from Tuesday's 179 million. The stocks traded valued up to Rs 8.72 billion compared to Rs 6.96 billion of the previous session. Of the 362 issues traded, 199 went up, 146 went down and that of 17 closed unchanged.
The market capitalisation inched up to Rs 6.952 trillion from Rs 6.923 trillion. Foreign investors made remained jittery and made net selling of $4.11 million. The day's volume leader was K-Electric which counted 37 million of its listed stakes changing hands. The power utility traded at Rs 7.06 and stayed unchanged at close. Other best performers included TRG Pakistan 12.8 million, Pak Elektron 12.0 million, Dewan Cement 10.4 million, Pakistan International Bulk Terminal (R) 10.2 million, TRG Pakistan (R) 8.6 million, Silk Bank 8.1 million, SNGPL 7.4 million, Byco Petroleum 6.8 million and Pakistan International Bulk Terminal 4.9 million shares. "Interest was seen in value stocks especially in the cement sector," said Ali. Futures trade rose to 36.28 million contracts against 27.85 million a day earlier. The market is expected to remain rangebound with low volumes in near future.
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