KARACHI, April 18: Stocks on Friday shrugged off the overnight hesitancy as investors covered positions at the lower levels on the blue chip counters aided in part by reports of higher interim earnings.
The weekend rally owes its strength to speculative buying ahead of board meetings of some of the leading companies during the next week and a market talk of interim dividend by some of them.
The other supporting factor was the government’s privatization programme to sell controlling shares of some big state-owned units during the current year and its likely positive impact on stock trading.
The KSE 100-share index recouped a good part of the overnight fall amid another volatile performance owing perhaps to weekend considerations as all the leading base shares finished higher under the lead of PTCL and Hub-Power.
It finally ended at 2,935.39 as compared to 2,921.18 eyeing the next chart point of 3,000 but after passing through successive consolidation phases. The net rise was 14.21 points.
The total market capitalization recouped its overnight loss and was quoted higher by Rs3.673bn at Rs640.557bn as compared to Rs636.884bn a day earlier.
The major shift in investor buying strategy reflects that they are now relying more on the positive basic corporate factors rather than external news and that is perhaps why bears failed to make deeper inroads in the domain of buyers.
Board meetings of a dozen leading companies including Shell Pakistan, Hub-Power and many others are due by the end of this month and investors are building up long positions where insider information has formed the basis of a stimulant, brokers said.
Induction of two directors of Dawood Hercules on the Engro Chemical board under an out of the court settlement could work both ways as far as investor interest is concerned.
The management of the Dawood Hercules has over the last about one year cornered about 27 per cent of the floating stock of Engro Chemical and claimed its share on the board followed by court case.
“Whether both the fertilizer giant will go for a corporate merger to save on overheads, or opt for capacity expansion or maintain their separate entities will be known during the next couple of months,” analysts said.
Led by leading institutional investors, bulls are playing a hide and seek game with the bears in apparent bid to induce them to unload long positions in some of the pivotals, notably those, which are under the process of disinvestment.
But a section of analysts believe that the market is now in an overbought position and could attract a lot of profit-selling at the current inflated level and then could rise again.
Meanwhile, it is interesting to know that a newly set up oil refinery, under the name of Bosicor Pakistan 40-mile away from Karachi is expected to commence trial production sometime next month. Its share value has surged to Rs15.80 after having ruled well below its face value for the last about one year.
Leading gainers were led by Pakistan Refinery, Burewala Textiles, Lawrencepur Woollen, Lakson Tobacco, Al-Ghazi Tractors, which has been under pressure for the last about one week, Indus Motors, Abbott Lab and dozens others which posted gains ranging from Rs3 to Rs5.85. Gatron Industries recovered Rs7.15 after having fallen sharply during the last couple of sessions.
Losers were led by Tri-Pack Films, Javed Omer, Shell Pakistan, Adamjee Insurance, Dawood Hercules, packages, New Jubilee Insurance, IGI Insurance and Treet Corporation were leading, off Rs2 to Rs12.75, the largest decline being in Treet Corporation on selling at the highly inflated levels.
Trading volume fell to 169m as compared to previous 239m shares but the advancing shares maintained a strong lead over the losing ones at 199 to 104, with 39 shares holding on to the last levels.
Sui Northern Gas led the list of actives, up 65 paisa at Rs26.65 on 39m shares followed by PTCL, firm by 15 paisa at Rs25.35 on 29m shares, Hub-Power, easy 10 paisa at Rs35.45 on 24m shares, D.G. Khan Cement, up 65 paisa at Rs15.80 on 15m shares and Bosicor Pakistan, off 45 paisa at Rs15.80 on 8m shares.
Other actives included PIAC(A), easy five paisa on 4m shares, MCB, up 30 paisa on 3m shares, Pakistan Oilfields, up Rs1.75 on 3m shares, ICI Pakistan, off 80 paisa also on 3m shares and ICP SEMF, lower 20 paisa on 2.419m shares.
FORWARD COUNTER: PSO followed the lead of its counterpart in the ready section and recovered Rs2.95 at Rs212.70 on 16m shares followed by Hub-Power, easy five paisa at Rs35.55 on 7m shares, PTCL, up 10 paisa at Rs25.40 on 6m shares.
Sui Northern rose by 55 paisa at Rs26.65 on 5m shares, while ICI Pakistan fell Rs1.35 at Rs50.45 on 0.889m shares. Others were modestly traded.
DEFAULTER COMPANIES: Suzuki Motorcycles again led the list of actives on this counter, off 25 paisa at Rs14 after persistent rise on 95,000 shares followed by Allied Motors, up 50 paisa at Rs12 on 8,000 shares. Some others were also actively traded on the higher side.
