KARACHI, April 24: Stocks on Tuesday were back on the rails as bulls fought back and drove bears out boosted by dividend related strong buying on selected counters amid an active trading. The KSE 100-share index was up by 135 points at 12,151.53.
The current correction seems to have run its course as bulls were back in the market ahead of board meetings of a number of leading companies and market talks of higher profits, the main buying thrust being on the banking, oil and cement sectors.
The KSE 100-share index consolidated well above the barrier of 12,000 and was last quoted at 12,151.53, up 135.35 points or 1.13 per cent boosted by heavy foreign buying in leading base shares, notably OGDC, Pakistan Petroleum, National Bank and Bank of Punjab. The market capital also rose by about 52 billion at Rs3,532.108bn.
“Essentially, it was dividend-linked rally that came in the backdrop of tense political background news,” analyst Faisal A. Rajabali said adding: “It is genuinely based on sound information about the higher corporate results and interim dividend and possibly bonus shares by leading among them.”
That is perhaps why advent of Client Level Netting (CLN) regime from April 23, on the forward counter in the May contracts failed to have its toll despite higher margins brokers have to pay.
Interim and final working results of some of the leading companies are due during the current and next couple of weeks and investors are not in a mood to miss the lower levels some of the blue chips had reached.
The major buying interest remained confined to leading bank, cement and oil shares, followed by some others, including Engro Chemical.
“It was not return of the prodigal son but bouts of genuine buying after bears failed to push the index below the barrier of 12,000 points,” analyst Ashraf Zakaria said, “The important thing was that tired bulls are not inclined to allow technical corrections to run their full course.”
The lead seem to have come from some of the foreign funds who were not inclined to await further decline in leading oil shares and picked them up at the current correction levels. OGDC, Pakistan Petroleum and Pakistan Oilfields were said to be the chief target.
Unilever Pakistan and Siemens Engineering were leading among the gainers, up by Rs10 to 45.00, Bank of Punjab, Allied Bank, Arif Habib Securities, Pakistan Tobacco, Pakistan Reinsurance Co, Fazal Textiles, Millat Tractors, Sitara Chemical and IGI Insurance, which posted gains ranging from Rs4.10 to 9.75.
Lakson Tobacco and Rafhan Maize were prominent among the losers, off Rs10 and 35. They were followed by Pakistan Engineering, Pak-Suzuki Motors, Bata Pakistan, Berger Paints, Tri-Pack Films, and National Refinery, off Rs3.40 to 5.25.
Trading volume rose to 248m shares from the previous 171m shares as gainers held a strong lead over the losers at 213 to 118, with 39 shares holding on to the last levels.
Askari Bank topped the list of actives, Rs2.40 at Rs93.30 on 26m shares followed by Bank of Punjab, higher by Rs4.50 at Rs104.50 on 20m shares, OGDC, up Rs1.70 at Rs122.05 on 16m shares, D.G.Khan Cement, firm by Rs1.55 at Rs96.55 on 15m shares, Pakistan Petroleum, higher by Rs3.50 at Rs267 on 11m shares, and National Bank, higher by Rs2.90 at Rs246.80 on 8m shares.Other actives were led by Lucky Cement, up Rs1.90 on 14m shares followed by Nishat Mills, higher by Rs3.10 on 11m shares, Hub-Power, firm by 45 paisa on 10m shares and Pakistan Oilfields, higher by Rs1.10 on 7m shares.
FORWARD COUNTER: Bank of Punjab led the list of actives on the cleared list, up Rs4.20 at Rs104.60 on 6m shares, followed by its May settlement, higher by Rs4.25 at Rs105.75 on 5m shares, and Lucky Cement, up Rs1.65 at Rs101.00 also on 5m shares.
Askari Bank followed them, up Rs2 at Rs93.50 on 4m shares and OGDC, up Rs1.74 at Rs122.34 on 4m shares.
DEFAULTER COUNTER: Active trading was also witnessed on this counter where Nimir Chemical came in for strong support and rose by 45 paisa at Rs3.25 on large turnover of 3.756m shares followed by Norrie Textiles, firm by 10 paisa at Rs3.10 on 0.615m shares and Zeal Pak Cement, steady 15 paisa at Rs5.50 on 0.161m shares. Japan Power also rose by 10 paisa at Rs4 on 0.117m shares.
