KARACHI, May 9: Stocks moved full steam ahead on Thursday with the KSE-100 index posting staggering gains of 188.91 points or one per cent to close at new record best at 19,661.46 points.
Foreign investors led the rally on Thursday just as the day earlier. Foreign funds inflow in the equity market amounted to a tall order of $8.04 million, which saw some of the heavyweights recordsubstantial gains. MCB Bank was in the forefront of gainers which shot up by Rs11.31 to hit its ‘upper circuit’ of 5 per cent increase from the opening price.
Local institutional and individual investors decided to seize the opportunity by offloading stocks at record high prices.
As a result, ‘companies’ were net sellers for the day at $0.36 million, banks posted net sales at $2.14m, mutual funds net sales at $1.8m, ‘other organisations’ net sales at $1.58m and individuals also deciding to take profit through sale of $2.15m worth equity.
The benchmark movement was one way, northwardly all through the session which was why the KSE-100 index ‘low’ was previous day’s close at 19472.55 points, while the ‘high’ was 19,736.25 points.
Market participants said that with elections only a day ahead, local investors were making calculated moves, lest their assessment of election results go awry.
Several stock brokers said that a thumping majority by a market-friendly government could give big boost to investor sentiments and the country’s capital markets, but in case of a loose coalition,risk of uncertainty would rise. Until the close of trading session, it wasn’t abundantly clear whether the stock market would open on Friday, for lack of Federal government announcement of a holiday, but most believed that it would be a working day, which made investors decide to hold on to their blue-chip stocks for another day in the hope that if foreign buy materialises also on Friday, they could reap some more gains before opting to sell and trim their portfolio.
The turnover, both in terms of volume and value was, however, heavy with 234 million shares of the trading value of Rs8.137 billion changing hands on Thursday, compared with 252m shares valued at Rs9.248bn traded the day earlier.
Some market participants also pointed to the rise in global equity markets. The S&P on Wall Street closed at record highs. Over the past five sessions, the S&P has closed at repeated record highs.
Regarding KSE performance on Thursday, analyst Ovais Ahsan at JS Global observed that Pakistan Petroleum was the second largest positive contributor to the index after MCB Bank. PPL rallied by 1.5pc as investors seemed to appreciate the company’s first mover’s advantage of exploring tight and shale gas potential in Pakistan.
National Bank of Pakistan was up 2.9pc, which also being the government’s treasury bank, invited investor interest due to attractive valuations.
Market capitalisation rose by Rs33bn to Rs4.836 trillion on Thursday, from Rs4.803 trillion a day earlier.
Among the 381 stocks that came up for trading on Thursday, 205 shares ended in positive and 142 in negative territory.
The top ten active list showed mix of first and second-tier stocks. Jah Sidd Co rose by 95 paisa to Rs11.45 on 22m shares, Lotte Chemical was up by 3 paisa to Rs7.80 on 16m shares, TRG Pakistan gained 68 paisa to Rs9.46 on 15m shares, Bankislami Pakistan edged higher by 4 paisa to Rs6.26 on15m shares, Fauji Cement shed 12 paisa to Rs9.93 on 11m shares, Wateen Telecom was up 9 paisa to Rs4.84 on 10m shares, Engro Corporation continued the gaining spree with addition of Rs1.91 to Rs138.92 on 9m shares; and NBP rallied by Rs1.12 to Rs40.15 on 7m shares.