KARACHI: The stock market continued to remain volatile on Wednesday swinging between the plus and minus as investor sentiments wavered on the political developments. Extending the earlier day’s steep fall, the market opened on a depressing note with a loss of 200 points. However, by the end the institutions summoned courage to pick up value stocks at lower levels. The benchmark KSE-100 index managed to close slightly up by 34.72 points or 0.12pc at 28,664.84.
The foreign investors with net purchases of $0.21m worth stocks also helped to lift sentiments. On the heavyweight oil & gas sector, Attock Petroleum gained Rs4.90; PSO rose by Rs2.52 and Mari Petroleum was up by Rs2.52.
Fahad Ali at JS Global observed that the KSE-100 index witnessed a roller coaster ride. Rumours of continuation by foreign participation provided confidence to the locals to participate in the market.
FCCL declared a cash dividend of Rs0.75 per share i.e. 7.5pc, along with the disappointing earnings of Rs1.80 per share. Engro also produced lower than expected earnings; the company declared an interim cash dividend at Rs2 per share with half year earnings of Rs5.23 per share.
KASB Research stated in its report that the index swung between its gains and losses during the entire trading session but closed near its opening level.
On technical chart, last trading session suggests that the index could target the upper bound of the range of 28,020-29,200.
Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp commented that stocks showed recovery led by oil and telecom scrips after reports on IMF revised GDP growth forecast for FY15 at 4.3pc. Retail investors remained cautious over prevailing political crisis. Institutional interest remained in blue chip stocks amid support from state owned institutions.
Published in Dawn, August 21st, 2014
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