STOCK MARKET UPDATE: 24.08.2012

STOCK:
Karachi Stocks Up 27.92 Points:
KARACHI, Aug 16: At the close of trading, the KSE-100 index was at 14998.85, up 27.92 points.  

August 23, 2012

5 TOP GAINERS  &  LOOSERS:

Bata Pak	Rs 39.48	Colgate Palmolive	Rs (56.25)
Siemens Pak	Rs 15.01	Shezan Int’l	Rs (10.20)
Exide Pak	Rs 11.54	Mithchells Fruit	Rs (8.90)
Atlas Battery	Rs 9.20	Philip Morris	Rs (5.07)
Pak Gum & Chem	Rs 6.95	Agriautos Indus	Rs (4.25)

Karachi Stock: KSE 100-index gains 80.47 points

KARACHI, Aug 23: Stocks continued their march forward on the first day of trading after a long break of six days (four trading sessions) with the KSE-100 index adding 80.47 points to close at 15,080.55 points.
Traders said that the fact that stocks did not look back once after a storming start was expected as there was nothing to stop the bulls from charging in the face of generally healthy financial figures in the on-going reporting season.
In spite of terrorism alerts by government officials, citizens went about celebrating the festive ‘Eid’ with vigour. Incidentally, there was not a tinge of fear in the air as people threw caution to the wind and went out shopping and filling up to capacity, all public places of entertainment.
Already the political headwinds had lost the force, which also pushed back the Government-Judiciary row at the back of investors’ mind.
The flurry of activity at the stock market could be gauged from the turnover on Thursday, where the volume in terms of shares stood at 222 million, representing 14-week high and more than twice compared to the 97 million shares traded on the last trading day, the previous Thursday.
Trading value also spiked to Rs5.5 billion, from Rs2.5 billion. Foreign investors bought shares worth $0.73 million.
Among the local participants, companies made net buy of $0.51 million; banks sold $2.37 million worth shares, while mutual funds, other organisation and individuals were also net purchasers of equity; the last category buying shares valued at $0.23 million.
Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp observed that the stocks closed bullish in the earning announcement session at KSE after strong recovery in global commodities.
Renewed foreign interest, higher local POL prices, hopes for revival of gas supply to fertilizer units in the country played a catalyst role in bullish sentiments despite concerns for political backlash on judicial decisions.
Equity Dealer, Samar Iqbal at Topline Securities, said that encouraged by the peaceful end to long holidays, increase in international oil prices and global equity markets helped local bourse to rally.
With volumes at 14-week high, cement stocks remained in the limelight.
Ferilizer stocks, Engro and Dawood Hercules closed at their upper limit on news regarding their request to Government for dedicated gas fields.
Hasnain Asghar Ali, COO at Escorts Capital, stated that the benchmark witnessed consolidation in post holiday session wherein oil and gas exploration heavy weights kept the gains on the benchmark intact while fertilizers and cement stocks added substantial turnover besides maintaining the upward drive.
Due to simmering down of crisis on the political and economic horizon, the revaluations due to interest rate cut and settlement of issues relating to gains tax, the local bourse backed with volumes witnessed strong activity.
The potential invited sideliners to continue to make cautious bets in the frontline stocks, while volume generating in low priced stocks attracted the short term traders.
Market capitalisation increased by Rs17 billion to Rs3.845 trillion on Thursday, from Rs3.828 trillion the previous Thursday.
Trading volume was dominated by the second and third-tier stocks. The cement stock, Lafarge Pakistan stood on the top slot, gaining 43 paisa to Rs5.70 on 39m shares; KESC added 94 paisa to Rs6.67 on 24m shares due to a jump to profitability. Fauji Cement was up 35 paisa to Rs6.85 on 22m shares; DG Khan Cement gained Rs1.15 to Rs50.47 on 17m shares; The dormant stock, Pace (Pak) rose almost limit up by 98 paisa to Rs2.88 on15m shares; Maple Leaf Cement increased by 52 paisa to Rs8.18 on 7m shares; Lucky Cement shot up by Rs4.46 to Rs133.35 on 6m shares; Askari Bank was up by 75 paisa to Rs16.12 on 6m shares. Flying Cement added 84 paisa to Rs3.89 on 6m shares and Bank Al-Falah shed 34 paisa to Rs16.79 on 5m shares.

MOHAMMED SALEEM MANSOORI