The Karachi share market witnessed a positive trend on the first trading day of the week Monday and the KSE-100 index gained 341 points to close at 34,184 points compared to 33,843 points Friday. Mohammad Rizwan, Vice President Topline Securities, said political uncertainty fizzled out as the ruling party won by-election in NA-122. Continuous rally in international oil prices and a surge in the Asian markets led by China allowed the KSE-100 index to gain 1 percent, closing at a month high of 34,184 points.
He said some profit-taking was seen in cements stocks after news of Lucky Cement's plant expansion in the Punjab region. Index heavyweight oil and banking stocks - PPL, POL and OGDC - gained 3.48-3.76 percent while UBL, HBL and MCB gained 0.63-3.74 percent, he added. During the entire trading, the market moved in the green zone touching 34,252 points highest level. However, trading activity at the ready counter was slightly lower than previous session and overall some 196 million shares were traded Monday compared to 249 million Friday. The market capitalisation increased by Rs 66 billion to Rs 7.299 trillion. Daily trading value decreased to Rs 9.8 billion down 29 percent.
Trading took place in 395 companies, of which 206 closed in green zone, 161 in the red, while share prices of 28 companies remained unchanged. Among top 10 active scrips, K-Electric, TRG Pak Ltd, Jah. Sidd. Co, Byco Petroleum and Maple Leaf cement were volume leaders with 23 million, 12 million, 11.7 million, 9.3 million and 6.2 million shares, respectively. Ahsan Mehanti, analyst at Arif Habib, said stocks closed bullish in the quarter-end earnings announcements session led by leveraged stocks on falling borrowing costs and speculations ahead of SBP policy rates decisions next month.
Oil stock supported the index to close near session's highs after a rally in WTI crude prices above $50/barrel, he added. He said easing political noise and bullish activity in the global equities and commodities played a catalytic role in the positive close. Ahmed Saeed Khan of JS said positivity continued on Monday where after making an intraday high of +410 points, to close the index +1.0 percent.
"Positivity could be attributed to E&P and auto sector, E&P sector rallied on the back of recovering crude oil prices that touched the $50 mark intraday. Top performers in the sector today were MARI (+4.20 percent), POL (+3.90 percent) and PPL (+3.2 percent)," he added. Auto sales numbers for September clocked better than expected, resultantly investor's interest was seen in the sector, top performer in the sector today was INDU (+2.1%), he mentioned.
He said profit-taking was witnessed in the cement sector, major laggards today were ACPL (-1.2 percent) and LUCK (-1.6 percent). However, Saeed said, confusion still prevails over the taking back of gas tariff hike and reduction in price per bag, therefore the sector remained under pressure where the major players closed in the red zone. Indus Dying and Sapphire Fiber were the top gainers with Rs 40.27 and Rs 35.20 to close at Rs 1,100.00 and Rs 746.36, respectively. Unilever Foods XD and Wyeth Pak Ltd were the top losers with Rs 150.00 and Rs 90.00 to close at Rs 7,000.00 and Rs 2,200.00, respectively.