Stocks stay buoyant

Pakistan Stock Exchange Tuesday witnessed another bullish session on the back of heavy buying by local and foreign investors. The benchmark KSE-100 index rose by 773.46 points to close at 52,146.97 points. The market opened on a strong positive note and the index hit 52,243.89 points intra-day high. However, it could not sustain this level due to profit-taking in certain stocks at the fag end. Foreign investors emerged net buyers of shares and bought equities worth $19 million.
Trading activity also improved significantly as the daily trading volumes increased to 323.923 million shares as compared to 240.190 million shares traded Monday. The market capitalization increased by Rs 124 million to Rs 10.320 trillion. Out of 417 active scrips, 273 closed in positive, 132 in negative while the value of 12 stocks remained unchanged.
Lotte Chemical was the volume leader with 40.677 million shares. It gained Rs 0.96 to close at Rs 12.64 followed by TRG Pak that increased by Rs 1.02 to close at Rs 54.91 with 12.638 million shares. Chakwal Spinning surged by Rs 0.96 to close at Rs 7.21 with 11.496 million shares. Wyeth Pak and Millat Tractors were the top gainers with Rs 120.90 and Rs 57.00, respectively to close at Rs 2,539.05 and Rs 1,526.86. Sapphire Fiber and Sanofi-Aventis were the top losers with Rs 62.50 and Rs 37.87, respectively to close at Rs 1,187.50 and Rs 2,092.33.
Arhum Ghous at JS Global Capital said the market continued its bullish momentum, with strong upward movement in most MSCI-EM stocks. The index gained around 773 points to close at 52,147 level. Banking sector led the gains in the market as the sector gained to close 1.71 percent higher than its previous day close. Major index movers from the aforementioned sector were MCB (up 4.02 percent), UBL (up 2.19 percent) and HBL (up 1.44 percent). A major constituent of the KSE-100 index, OGDC in the E&P sector, gained to close on its upper circuit contributing up 112 points to the overall index. On the back of noise in the market regarding the imposition of anti-dumping duty on chemical imports, LOTCHEM led market volumes closing at its upper circuit. Fertiliser sector also recorded gains with DAWH (up 5.0 percent) closing at its upper circuit, while ENGRO (up 2.12 percent) also made substantial contribution to the index.
An analyst at Topline Securities said that trading at the bourse remained robust, with the KSE-100 index on track to re-test its all time high closing of 52,847points. With only six sessions left till MSCI EM-index inclusion, SECP has introduced a post close trading session to accommodate expected hike in trading activity. The post close session would be similar to after-hours trading in developed markets, except that securities would be traded at a fixed price ie their respective closing prices after regular market hours.