Karachi bourse recovers 48 points

KARACHI: Thin buying on selective counters helped the Karachi bourse restore above 9,500 points on Tuesday where foreign investment remained primary source of recovery.

Earlier, the market had lost about four-and-half per cent in the last five consecutive bear-run sessions.

KSE 100-share index regained 47.82 points or 0.50 per cent and closed at 9,546.39 points.

Its junior partner the 30-share index recovered 50.46 points or 0.51 per cent and concluded at 9,974.84 points.

Analysts were of the view that the continuous decline in shares-prices in previous sessions had made them lucrative so that a section of investors dared to inject funds on selective counters.

Farhan Seth at Topline Securities said after a sharp fall in previous sessions, the market posted a meager increase amid dull volumes as clarification regarding earlier rumours of corporate default improved the sentiments.

However, activity remained confined to oil scrips and commercial banks.

Hasnain Asghar Ali at Aziz Fidahusein explained that rumours about a textile company were in circulation that it had failed to pay the interest money to its Term Finance Certificates (TFCs) holders.

This was being termed ‘corporate default’ in the market for the last couple of days. Without taking the company name, he said the company has settled the issue with extending the date of payment by three months reportedly. Accordingly, the Oil & Gas Development Company, MCB Bank and Pak Petroleum were three notable stocks, which contributed points to double digits on the key benchmark 100-index.

They cumulatively included about 39 points on the said benchmark.

Among others, National Bank, Fauji Fertlizer Bin Qasim, Engro Corporation, Adamjee Insurance, Lucky Cement, Pakistan State Oil and many more stocks closed on positive note.

Foreign portfolio investors remained prominent buyer consecutively and injected another smart tranches of $3.16 million in this session.

Local companies, other organizations and non-banking finance companies also bought shares worth $2.03 million, $900 thousand and $152 thousand, respectively. On the contrary, mutual funds and individual investors appeared as leading sellers and offloaded a part of holding worth $3.27 million and $2.18 million, respectively.

Local companies also withdrew $793 thousand in this session, according to NCCPL. Accordingly, the overall market capitalization improved by Rs12 billion and stood at Rs2,737 billion.

Turnover in ready market steadied to 109.28 million shares from 100.20 million shares changed hands yesterday.

Turnover in the future market, however, further fell to 1.88 million against 2.75 million shares traded a day earlier.

Ahsan Mehanti at Shahzad Chamdia Securities said the positive activity witnessed in an oversold market on institutional buying in oil, insurance and banking sector scrips.

Renewed foreign interest in the market, rise in global commodity prices and positive expectation from upcoming result announcements played a catalyst role in positive activity on the Karachi Stock Exchange.

Out of total 383 active stocks, 205 stocks declined, 161 stocks advanced, while the value of remaining 17 stocks closed unchanged. Highest volumes were witnessed in WorldCall Telecom at 11.76 million closing at Rs4.42 with a loss of 20 paisa, followed by Lotte Pakistan at 8.56 million closing at Rs9.49 with a gain of 10 paisa, Azgard Nine at 8.14 million closing at Rs16.87 with a loss of 98 paisa, JS Company at 7.81 million closing at Rs22.15 with a loss of 83 paisa, and SilkBank (R) at 5.65 million closing at 41 paisa with a loss of one paisa.