KARACHI, Jan 8: Stocks on Monday finished with an extended gain boosted by renewed active covering purchases in the leading bank and oil shares under the lead of PTCL, National Bank and OGDC, pushing the KSE 100-share index further higher by another 89 points at 10,236.
Turnover figure also crossed the 100m shares mark for the first time in the new trading year after a couple of lean sessions indicating it could attain the daily normal average level of 200m shares in the weeks to come as attractively lower prices could attract any amount of fresh buying.
Trading, therefore, resumed on a firm note as investors remained active on the blue chip counters in an apparent effort to give the prime minister a positive welcome.
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz was due to give away corporate excellence awards to the top listed 25 companies later in the day.
Owing to his series of corporate reforms to restore sanity to stock trading both as the finance minister and the prime minister, Mr Aziz has been very close to the hearts of brokers as he listens to their technical problems and tries to solve them well in time.
“It is during his tenure that new records were established both in terms of market capital ($55 billion) and index level (12,236), but not without some negatives including market crash of 2005 and June 2006,” analysts said.
The KSE 100-share index gained another 88.60 points at 10,235.96 as compared to 10,147.00 last weekend, reflecting the strength of leading bank shares.
Although the index maintained its upward drive for the fourth session in a row, bulk of the buying remained confined to some selected sectors and failed to cover the broader market, brokers said.
However, the new year was expected to be much better on the strength of higher corporate profits and payouts and sell-off of some of the leading state-owned units including PSO.
The market recovery was again led by the banking sector whose corporate earnings were said to be fairly impressive and most of them were expected to come out with higher dividend and bonus shares.
Oil shares and blue chips and other counters also came in for active renewed support and ended higher amid relatively larger volumes.
Leading gainers were led by Rafhan Maize and Wyeth Pakistan, up by Rs45 and Rs103, followed by Nestle Pakistan and Rafhan Bestfoods, which posted gains ranging from Rs14 to Rs22.50.
National Bank, Lakson Tobacco, Attock Petroleum, PSo and Dawood Hercules also rose by Rs4.30 to Rs9.70.
Losers included Clover Pakistan and Unilever Pakistan, off Rs5 and Rs20. They were followed by MCB, EFU General, Premir Sugar, Callmate Telips, Packages, Bata Pakistan and Jahangir Siddiqui and Co, off Rs2.30 to Rs4.75.Trading volume rose to 119m shares from the previous 88m shares as gainers maintained a slight edge over the losers at 152 to 150,with 39 shares holding on to the last levels.
OGDC came in for strong active bouts of buying and selling and rose to finish with a gain of Rs1.60 at Rs114.80 on 18m shares followed by National Bank, up by Rs4.30 at Rs240.80 on 13m shares, MCB, lower by Rs2.30 at Rs258 on 9m shares, D.G. Khan Cement, firm by Rs1.50 at Rs64.50 on 7m shares, PTCL up by Re1 at Rs47.50 on 7m share, Pakistan Petroleum, higher by Rs2 at Rs236 on 4m shares and Bank Alfalah, firm by 65 paisa at Rs44.25 on 4m shares.
Other actives were led by Lucky Cement, steady by 20 paisa on 6m shares, Pakistan Oilfields, up Rs2.90 on 5m shares, Bank of Punjab, higher by Rs1.40 also on 5m shares and Pakistan Petroleum up by Rs2 on 4m shares.
FORWARD COUNTER: MCB was actively traded on this counter and was quoted lower by Rs1.25 at Rs259.25 on 9m shares followed by National Bank, higher by Rs4.25 at Rs241.75 also on 9m shares and OGDC, up by Rs1.70 at Rs115.30 on 5m shares.
They were followed by Lucky Cement, up by 85 paisa at Rs59.85 on 3m shares and Pakistan Oilfields, higher by Rs3.25 at Rs349.30 also on 3m shares.
DEFAULTRE COS: Trading activity on this counter was relatively slow in the absence of buyers. Unity Modaraba and Nimir Chemical, however, came in for stray support and were quoted unchanged at 60 paisa and up by 10 paisa at Rs3.15 on 0.374 and 0.280m shares respectively.
Zahoor Textiles also attracted modest support and rose by 10 paisa at Rs1.40 on 0.112m shares.