STOCK MARKET UPDATE: 04.04.2013

STOCKS

Karachi Stocks Up 222.20 Points:
KARACHI, Apr 03: At the close of trading, the KSE-100 index was at 18567.94, up 222.20 points.

(Today Market is 45.61 Up@ 11.15 am)

April 3, 2013

 5 TOP GAINERS  &  LOOSERS:

UniLever Pak	Rs 1676.55	Sunrays Textile	Rs (9.99)
Nestle Pakistan Ltd.	Rs 288.69	Pak Services	Rs (5.84)
Unilever Food	Rs 200.00	Indus Dyeing	Rs (5.50)
Rafhan Maize	Rs 180.00	Tandlianwala Sugar	Rs (4.15)
Colgate Palmolive	Rs 93.45	Pak Gum & Chem.	Rs (3.20)

Karachi Stock Exchange-index hits new peak

KARACHI, April 3: Stock market soared to record high with an addition of 230.14 points or 1.25 per cent to the KSE-100 index which closed at 18,575.88 points on Wednesday.
Market participants believed that the rally was triggered by the euphoria over the Unilever buy-back of public shareholding which is thought to unleash liquidity in the region of Rs30 to Rs50 billion in the market.
Investors were confident that the greater portion of it would be ploughed back, possibly in the ‘food sector’. That was lent credence to the swift rise in prices of all ‘food’ stocks as Engro Foods, National Foods, Nestle Pakistan, Shakarganj Mills and others, closed at their ‘upper circuit’.
Dealers said that bulls appeared in no mood to slow down their relentless charge. In the past three sessions, the market has gained more than 500 points, which bewilders some skeptics.
“Although the economy has been sinking in mire for months, yet the stock market keeps setting new highs every day,” said one.
Stockbrokers, traders and many analysts argue that there is a ‘method in this madness’.
Faisal Shaji, head of research at Standard Capital Securities, agreed that the economy was in a poor state, but he said that the stock investors were encouraged by the smooth process towards the elections which had quenched rumours of the possibility of undemocratic upheaval on the political front.
Besides, he said investors were also sanguine that the care-taker set up would not take any major decision on the economic or monetary side, such as the raise in discount rate in the SBP Monetary policy to be announced later this month.
He also pointed to the possibility of sparkling bottom lines in the results to be announced for the quarter ended March.
Zubair Hussain, head of equity sales at Foundation Securities, listed three reasons for heady atmosphere at the market: Flow of liquidity in the fast moving consumer goods companies; expectations of grand improvement in upcoming results, particularly the cement and textile sectors and thirdly foreign inflows in the frontier markets of which Pakistan was also a small beneficiary.
According to the figures provided by National Clearing Company of Pakistan, on Wednesday, foreign investors bought $1.97m worth equity. Local institutional investors were also on the ‘buy’ side with ‘companies’ picking up stocks worth $1.25m, banks $1.53m and mutual funds $1.60m. Individual investors however, booked profit by selling off $2.59m worth shares.
Some market strategists have calculated that the cement and textile sectors could post phenomenal earnings growth between 50 to 100 per cent for the year to close on June 30, 2013.
Turnover was slightly lower at 203 million shares on Wednesday, from 225 million shares the previous day.
Trading value increased to Rs8.423 billion to Rs8.210 billion. Market capitalisation was up by Rs76 billion to Rs4.569 trillion.
The biggest gainer for the day was Unilever Pakistan up by Rs1,676.55 to reach its buy-back price of Rs15,000. It was followed by another food stock Nestle Pakistan higher by Rs288.69 to Rs6,062.64.
Among the 357 stocks traded on Wednesday, 202 were gainers, 135 losers and 20 remained unchanged. On the top-10 active list, Maple Leaf Cement saw turnover in 21m shares, up by 64 paisa to Rs20.32, Lafarge Pakistan higher by 13 paisa to Rs7.13 on 20m shares, Fauji Cement pushed higher by four paisa to Rs8.81 on 19m shares and Engro Corporation gained 94 paisa to Rs136.23 on 11m shares.
PIA edged higher by 4 paisa to Rs7.01 on 10m shares, Jahangir Sidd Co down by 38 paisa to Rs12.71 on 7m shares, D.G. Khan Cement made strong gains of Rs1.27 to Rs73.43 on 7m shares and Fauji Fertiliser down by Rs1.69 to Rs110.48 on 6m shares.
Cement stocks help KSE scale an all-time high: KARACHI: On the concrete trading foundation laid by cementmakers, Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) built a rally to consolidate yet another all-time high here on Tuesday, Geo News reported said.
The recordmaking KSE-100 Index grew by 0.40 percent, or 73.63 points, to close at 18,345.74 points at the end of the trading day.
Tuesday’s star performers were Fauji Cement Company Ltd, which rose by 4 percent to close at 8.83 rupees and Maple Leaf Cement Factory Ltd, which gained 5.33 percent to reach Rs19.76.
Analysts said the investors remained sold to the cement stocks on hopes of better than expected earnings in March.

MOHAMMED SALEEM MANSOORI