KARACHI: Stocks witnessed intense volatility on Monday with the KSE-100 index closing up by 69.91 points, or 0.21 per cent, at 33,304.64.

The initial euphoria was caused by the visit of the Chinese president, who according to the federal minister for planning and development was set to sign projects worth $46 billion. It shot the index up by as many as 419 points, but late profit-taking pulled the index down.

However, the index for the first time since March 5, 2015 closed above 33,300 level. Traded volumes stood at 383m shares of Rs20.1bn value.

Foreign investors were net buyers of $1.81 million worth equity. Local investors were also active with companies and banks selling stocks of $3.45m and $8.77m, though that was offset by heavy buying of $13.34m worth shares by the mutual fund.

Brokerage Topline Securities stated that late profit-taking was seen in cement stocks which have been rallying for the last few sessions.

In banking sector, MCB Bank and UBL both closed positive, up 4.9pc and 2pc, in anticipation of better January-March 2015 results.

Engro Foods declared better than expected quarterly results which pushed the index up by 4pc.

Analyst Arhum Ghous at JS Global also blamed the cement sector where heavy profit-taking sent the index down. CHCC, DGKC and MLCF were all down. Despite a slight recovery in global oil prices, the oil and gas sector remained mixed with PSO ending 0.5pc lower, while SHEL and POL ended 4.7pc and 1.9pc higher.

Analyst Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp stated that the bullish activity was witnessed at the bourse amid record trades led by cement, power sector stocks.

Published in Dawn, April 21st, 2015

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