STOCK MARKET UPDATE: 08.04.2013

STOCKS

Karachi Stocks Up 22.59 Points:
KARACHI, Apr 05: At the close of trading, the KSE-100 index was at 18636.03, up 22.59 points.

(Today 8^th April- Market is 35.24 Up@ 11.57 am)

April 5, 2013

 5 TOP GAINERS  &  LOOSERS:

Bata Pak	Rs 72.79	Unilever Food	Rs (157.51)
Colgate Pak	Rs 60.00	Siemens Pak	Rs (9.75)
Wyeth Pak	Rs 46.80	Sunrays Textile	Rs (7.50)
Mithchells Fruit	Rs 17.47	Sapphire Fiber	Rs (6.50)
Philip Morris	Rs 12.55	Attock Refinery	Rs (5.55)

 Equity prices crawl up

KARACHI, April 5: Stocks closed the last trading session of the week also in the positive, gaining 22.59 points to 18,636.03 points on Friday.
Bulls maintained their hold in most of the sectors, which dealers attributed mainly to the euphoria over the upcoming financial results. Investors were expecting healthy profit and payouts from companies, particularly from the textile and cement companies.
The gains on Friday, however, were muted as many investors went into profit-taking following a week of substantial rise in the benchmark.
Analysts said that the impact of Unilever delisting in terms of index points and incremental liquidity had buoyed sentiments all through the week. On Friday, investors were also keeping an eye on the SBP Monetary Policy, which is due to be announced on April 11.
The figures of local and foreign investment released by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan showed that after several days of inflow into the equity market, foreign investors sold stocks worth $1.0 million on Friday.
During the week, foreigners had picked up stocks worth $5.7 million. Local participants were mostly on the ‘buy’ side.
Companies bought shares worth $0.2 million, banks were buyers of shares valued at $0.36 million and mutual funds also poured $1.06 million in the equity market.
Zulqarnain Khan of brokerage Next Capital commented that the investors remained on the sidelines ahead of the week end and preferred to take profit. The vacant position of the finance minister is also being watched by the investors, very closely.
There was slight concern over the foreign exchange reserves of the country, which were under pressure due to looming debt payments, he said.
Samar Iqbal, manager equity Sales at Topline Securities, stated that the KSE benchmark-index maintained the 18,600-mark with low volumes.
Renewed buying interest was seen in telecom sector amid hope of better March earnings. Major activity remained in mid cap stocks.
The KSE-100 index oscillated between the high at 18,718 points and low at 18,589 points; the volatility providing opportunity to punters to engage in short term trading in small and mid-tier stocks.
The market capitalisation based KSE-30 index was up by 25.38 points to 14,546.19 points. Turnover in terms of volume stood at 207 million shares, down by 16 per cent over the earlier day’s trading in 246 million shares.
Trading value declined by 21 per cent to Rs6.595 billion on Friday, from Rs8.376 billion the previous day. Market capitalisation saw addition of Rs3 billion to Rs4.587 trillion, from Rs4.584 trillion.
The highest gainers for the day were Bata (Pakistan) up by Rs72.79 to Rs1,528.74 and Colgate Palmolive up by Rs60 to Rs2,000.
On the declining side, Unilever Food lost Rs157.51 to Rs4,427 and Siemens Pakistan was lower by Rs9.75 to Rs595.25.
Among the 361 stocks that came up for trading on Friday, 162 were gainers, 182 losers and 16 remained unchanged.
The top-10 volume leaders were BankIslami Pakistan up by 36 paisa to Rs6.66 on 19m shares, PTCL higher by 57 paisa to Rs21.23 on 16m shares, Engro Polymer declined by five paisa to Rs11.58 on 16m shares, Maple Leaf Cement slumped by 70 paisa to Rs18.67 on 14m shares and Telecard Limited was up by 23 paisa to Rs6.10 on 11m shares.
TRG Pakistan added 34 paisa to Rs7.74 on 10m shares, Jah Sidd Co hit the ‘upper circuit’ with gain of Re1 to Rs13.30 on 9m shares, price of share in Engro Foods increased by 51 paisa to Rs144.69 on 8m shares, Fauji Cement was down by 4 paisa to Rs8.60 on 7m shares and Engro Corporation plunged by Rs1.68 to Rs134.07 on 7m shares.
Earning hopes keep the ball rolling for Pakistan stocks: KARACHI: Hopes of lucrative earnings ahead of corporate results kept the ball rolling at Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) here on the rollover day, Geo News reported.
The benchmark KSE-100 Index scored 22.59 positive points, to close at 18,636.03 points, which translates to a gain of 0.12 percent.
By the time the closing bell chimed, Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd was up 2.47 percent to Rs21.17 rupees, whereas Bank Islami Pakistan Ltd rose 6.35 percent to Rs6.70.

Company News:

MoU for safety in cement industry: ISLAMABAD, April 5: All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association (APCMA) signed an MOU with Lafarge Pakistan Limited to upgrade cements plants across Pakistan to international health and safety standards.
Following the Baldia Town factor fire, a number of sectors took initiatives to protect workers and installations from such disasters.
According to the MoU, Lafarge would train, create awareness and share its standards on health and safety with other cement manufactures.
CEO Lafarge Pakistan Amr Reda said that the cement industry operated in an environment with multiple types of hazards.
We have made it a priority to ensure the safety of all people, working directly and indirectly, within the cement sector, he added.
The APCMA welcomed the initiative and encouraged all its members to not only study and apply the safety standards but take initiatives to share the best practices across their organisations.
Though all the cement plants observe safety measures but the industry does not have an overall criterion to meet the international standards. The APCMA has approached Lafarge because of their high safety standards compliances at the
international level.
Chairman Lafarge Pakistan retired Maj Gen Rehmat Ali Khan said that there were one million moving parts in a cement plant ranging from a conveyer, crushers to movement of heavy machinery like cranes and trucks.
“Safety standard are compromised only because of lack of awareness,” he said adding, “None of the investors want to see another tragedy like the ill fated Karachi factory fire — but they took the safety standards lightly.”
The cost of implementing the Lafarge style safety standards would be around Rs10,000 per employee in addition to fire alarms and a dedicated team for training of employees and creating awareness.
CEO of Kohat Cement Aizaz Sheikh said that the cost of implementing high safety standards may seem a bit too much but it’s the losses through accidents that are more expensive.
It was noted that cement plants usually have 1,000-2,000 employees and majority of them have limited education.

MOHAMMED SALEEM MANSOORI