0
Despite the carnage and heavy death toll in Thursday’s bomb blasts in the city, stocks in the country maintained their winning streak amid optimism that the homecoming of former prime minister and PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto would restore sanity to the highly polarised political scenario.
The massive welcome to Ms Bhutto was marred by the death of well over 130 persons in blasts apparently targeting her, however, left behind a tragic legacy as the city mourned the death of innocent people most of whom had come from upcountry to welcome her.
The stock market appears to have ignored the negative fallout of the city killings and maintained its winning streak on strong foreign and local buying hoping that the current bull-run will be sustained during the next week also.
The KSE 100-share index added another 324 points to the previous total for the seventh consecutive week and finished the weekend session at 14,787.55 points, as leading base shares did not look back and maintained their upward drive.
Click to view the larger image
“I don’t call it market’s spontaneous welcome to former prime minister Benazir Bhutto after eight years of self-exile, said a leading analyst, but some others linked it to the “prevailing enthusiasm in the city measured by the banners and hoarding on city roads”.
“The index level of 15,000 or beyond now does not appear to be an elusive goal”, analyst Ahsan Mehanti said adding “the base shares, notably of OGDC and MCB are under squeeze and for good reasons too”.
Incidentally, stocks journey beyond this level coincided with the resumption of hearing of petitions by the Supreme Court seeking ruling on the eligibility of President Musharraf to seek re-election for the second term from the existing assemblies. However, the market’s future trend is expected to be guided by the Supreme Court verdict on the petitions, which analysts believe, could go either-way being an important constitutional issue.
Both the shares having considerable weightage are capable of taking the market along where they want it to. Massive buying in OGDC for the last couple of sessions is essentially based on the higher oil and gas production and in MCB, the support linked to GDR.
The opening after four Eid-holidays was on the higher side as investors were not inclined to take a bearish view of the market, notably in the backdrop of the euphoria created by the expected arrival of Ms Bhutto.
“The perception that her arrival could end the prevailing political uncertainty seems to be the chief motivating factor behind the massive buying on selected counters”, analyst Ashraf Zakaria said adding “foreign buyers were more active”. Bulk of the support was confined to mostly risk-free shares and those having good dividend record as investors were not inclined to go beyond safe havens for good reasons too.
Siemens Pakistan, and Unilever Pakistan were leading among the gainers, up by Rs29 and Rs90, while losers were led by Pakistan Reinsurance Co, and Pakistan Engineering, off by Rs13.70 and 12.25.—Muhammad Aslam.
