A bullish trend continued on the Karachi share market during the outgoing week ended February 24, 2012 on the back of both local and foreign investors support.
The benchmark KSE-100 index registered a healthy increase of 210.84 points during the week and closed at 45-month highest level of 12,706.52 points. Trading activity also improved significantly as the average daily volumes at the ready counter increased by 36.9 percent to 239.62 million shares as compared to previous week''s average of 175.04 million shares.
Total market capitalisation increased by Rs 53 billion to Rs 3.310 trillion. The foreign investors turned net buyers of shares worth $1.5 million during the week as compared to a net outflow of $0.84 million recorded in the previous week.
The market opened on a positive note and the index gained 22.22 points to close at 12,517.90 level with total volume of 232.851 million shares on Monday. This trend continued on Tuesday and the index increased by 26.55 points to close at 12,544.45 points with 322.473 million shares. The market witnessed another bullish session of Wednesday and the index surged by 59.22 points to close at 12,603.67 points with 272.371 million shares.
On Thursday, the investors opted for profit taking on available margins and the index lost 87.75 points to close at 12,515.92 points with 178.045 million shares.
Aggressive buying by both local and foreign investors on Friday supported the index to register a healthy increase of 190.60 points to close the week at 45-month highest level of 12,706.52 points with 192.346 million shares.
"Positivity continued this week as well as the market witnessed bullish activities on account of better result season alongside rising oil and fertiliser prices", Yawar Uz Zaman, an analyst at InvestCap said.
The investors remained focused on healthy corporate earnings and the index breached the psychological level of 12,700 points, up 1.69 percent on week-on-week basis, he said.
"Despite swelling country''s current account deficit and ever rising government borrowings and surge in international oil prices, market sentiments remained positive and the index continued its run-up to 13,000 points level", he added.
On local front, finance ministry looked realistic to achieve GDP growth of 3.6 percent in FY12 while PKR also stayed firm against the USD regardless of the IMF repayment of $417 million on the last day of trading.
Fertiliser sector scrips came in the limelight after National Fertiliser Development Centre released urea off take figures for January 2012, which showed a massive growth in urea of 55 percent on year-on-year basis, while DAP off take was lower by 51 percent. At the same time, Subsidy on imported urea was also brought down by increasing per bag prices more than offsetting cut in DAP prices during the week.
Naveed Tehsin at JS Global Capital said that the strong corporate results stole the limelight as investors ignored domestic political turbulence and an uncertain US-Pak relationship. Consequently, the index gained 211 points, up 1.7 percent on week-on-week basis.
He said that the reduction in DAP prices by ENGRO and UBL acquiring 30 percent shareholding of Khushhali Bank Limited (KBL) were amongst the major highlights during the week. Furthermore, the government has issued TFCs worth Rs 136 billion to ease the circular debt crisis prevailing in the energy chain.