Stocks inch up

Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed a mixed trend due to lack of confidence of investors over the prevailing political situation in the country. The benchmark KSE-100 index after moving between 40,173.83 points intra-day high and 39,792.15 points intra-day low closed at 39,893.84 points marginally up 20.96 points.
Trading activity also remained low as the daily volumes at the ready counter declined to 237.116 million shares as compared to 328.551 million shares traded on previous session. The market capitalisation decreased by Rs 3 billion to stand at Rs8.082 trillion. Out of the total 414 scrips, 228 closed in positive and 165 in negative while the value of 21 stocks remained unchanged.
K-Electric was the volume leader with 40.701 million shares. It gained Rs 0.23 to close at Rs 9.33 followed by Bank of Punjab that lost Rs 0.13 to close at Rs 15.61 with 25.378 million shares. Sui Southern Gas increased by Rs 0.55 to close at Rs 38.71 with 12.107 million shares.
Phillip Morris Pak and Sanofi-Aventis were the top gainers with Rs 83.36 and Rs 83.06, respectively to close at Rs 2033.36 and Rs 1744.78 while Nestle Pakistan and Murree Brewery were the top losers with Rs 225.00 and Rs 55.55 to close at Rs 8100.00 and Rs 1055.49.
Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corporation said stocks showed recovery led by select scrips across the board amid speculations in the earnings season and SEP agreement over strategic sale of K-Electric with Abraaj Group. The political uncertainty, falling global equities, crude prices invited intra-day pressure, however strong results in the fertilisers, oil and auto sector invited institutional interest. The foreign inflows, high court orders on opposition protest without lockdown of federal capital played a catalyst role in positive close.
An analyst at Global Securities said that the local bourse snapped its 6 day losing streak albeit in an unremarkable fashion, gaining just 21points and settling at 39,894 points. After a 6-day cumulative loss of 1,672 points, the market found support and gained 300 points during mid-day trading, going past the 40,000 point level. Later on, however, the market succumbed to profit taking as investors likely remained cautious of the prevalent political scenario, causing the bourse to wipe out majority of the intra-day gains and fall back to sub 40,000 levels. HBL (+1.19 percent) and UBL (+0.84 percent) emerged as top gainers with a cumulative contribution of 49 points. In contrast, NESTLE (-2.70 percent) and MCB (-0.97 percent) eroded 20 points and 18 pointed, respectively. KEL (+2.53 percent) garnered investors' attention after its holding company, Abraaj Group, formally announced the finalisation of the agreement to divest its stake for $1.77 billion, allowing the stock to top the volumes chart with a turnover of 41 million shares.