STOCK MARKET UPDATE: 13.07.2012

STOCK:

Karachi Stocks Up 26.66 Points:
KARACHI, July 13: The KSE-100 index was at 14428.4, up 26.66 points. (today 11.12 am)

July 12, 2012

5 TOP GAINERS  &  LOOSERS:

Rafhan Maize	Rs 100.00	UniLever Pak	Rs (185.19)
Nestle Pak	Rs 91.50	Sanofi Aventis	Rs (9.55)
Colgate Palmolive	Rs 52.88	Thal Limited	Rs (4.65)
Bata Pak	Rs 28.99	Engro Foods	Rs (3.55)
Mitchells Fruits	Rs 13.76	Burshan LPG	Rs (2.46)

Intra-day short sale allowed in stocks

KARACHI, July 12: One of the major decisions taken at the meeting between the apex regulator, Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) and the officials of the Karachi Stock Exchange on Thursday was thought to be granting permission to intra-day short sale in stocks.
The SECP team led by its chairman Muhammad Ali held a day long deliberations with the KSE representatives.
Investors had been looking forward to the meeting for a week since it was announced the previous Thursday. At the time, the SECP had produced agenda with 22 items that the Commission wished to discuss.
The marathon meeting on Thursday concluded at around 9pm. Although a press release was awaited from the regulators to inform the investors of what had come to pass, none was issued till mid-night.
An official of the bourse said that a joint-press release of the SECP-KSE would be released on Friday.
The information gleaned from various sources pointed to some key takeaways of the meeting. Persons supposed to be in the knowledge of matter said that a number of issues were discussed and decisions were taken in principal, but the apex regulator said it would give its nod after an internal discussion.
The major points on which the regulators were thought to be on the same page included: allowing intra-day short sale in stocks; roll over of futures to be allowed by paying the cost of fund; currently it has to be rolled over by buying and selling of futures; third, shares which are restricted in Margin Trading System (MTS) financing also to be made available for pledging purposes and finally, a system to be put in place to discourage in-house financing.
KSE 100-index adds 21 points in volatile trading
KARACHI, July 12: High degree of volatility was witnessed at the Karachi stock market on Thursday, with the benchmark KSE-100 index gaining 21.28 points and settle at 14,401.74 points.
Initial rally generated over the excitement of the meeting of the apex and the front line regulators during the day, saw the index hit the 14,500 level.
But retail investors remained on their toes mainly on concern over the interpretation of the Supreme Court pronouncements on sensitive issues and the possible response of the government that they feared could trigger a fresh wave of Judiciary-government tussle.
The worries intensified near the close of the session, wiping out the day’s gains as the index spiraled down into the red. It managed to just jump into the positive before the closing bell.
Foreign investors continued to remain on the buy side with net purchases of $0.79 million worth equity, which was thought to be the redeeming factor. Among local participants, mutual funds also bought shares of net worth $2.65 million. But the banks offloaded shares of $2.41 million.
While most retail investors kept themselves away from the market until the dust settled, even the high net worth individuals decided to trim their portfolio, or swap stocks with those about to announce results and payouts.
Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp said that the stocks closed higher amid cautious activity by investors before Supreme Court reaction on NRO judgment implementation. Profit-
taking was witnessed in the corporate earning announcements season at KSE as uncertainty in global market persisted.
Institutional support was seen in blue chip stocks in oil, banking and cement sector on improvement in Pak-US relations and speculations ahead of release of US Coalition Support Fund of $1.5bn.
Hasnain Asghar Ali, market commentator, said that despite worries over the judicial hearings that kept the cautious among investors on sidelines, the local participants both from corporate and retail corridors accumulated selective stocks from cement and fertiliser sectors.
Although sector and stock swapping led to negativity in various front liners, gaining stream in others kept the balance in the positive for most part of the session.
Volume was generated in various low priced and mid-tier stocks mainly on positive corporate earnings expectations. That triggered activity mainly in the mutual funds, as they tend to announce cash payouts with the June end results. Short term trading opportunities thus offered, enabled turnover to manage to rise to decent levels; though values
struggled to attain impressive levels.
The KSE-30 index was marginally higher by 5.19 points to 12,492.03 points. Turnover improved to 109 million shares, from 81 million shares traded the previous day. Trading value saw good gains from Rs2.372 billion on Wednesday to Rs4.630 billion on Thursday. Market capitalization rose by Rs7 billion to Rs3.671 trillion, from Rs3.663 trillion the earlier day.
In the aggregate, 360 shares came up for trading on Thursday with 163 ending in the plus and 109 in minus columns. Another 88 stocks remained unchanged.
Among the ten most active issues, D.G. Khan Cement again topped with 12m shares up by 12 paisa to Rs43.06. It was followed by Engro Foods with 8m shares traded, rising by
Rs3.55 to Rs69.86, Fauji Cement shed 10 paisa to Rs5.79 on 6m shares, NIB Bank was up 14 paisa to Rs2.19 on 5m shares.
Jah Sidd Co eased by nine paisa to Rs14.23 on 5m shares, Azgard Nine edged higher by 5 paisa to Rs6.61 on 5m shares, Lucky Cement gained Rs1.34 to Rs125.27 on 5m shares, Hub Power Company rose by 27 paisa to Rs42.94 on 4m shares, Bank Alfalah fell 13 paisa to Rs17.86 on 4m shares and Fauji Fertiliser Bin Qasim took a dip of 97 paisa to close at Rs40.60 on 3m shares.

MOHAMMED SALEEM MANSOORI