KARACHI, Dec 2: Stocks gave another improved performance on Monday as heavy institutional buying in the PTCL and some other pivotals again took the entire market along with it in the plus column amid active trading.
The opening was, however, a bit bearish in the backdrop of Indian threat of fourth war if the alleged cross-border terrorism was not stopped. But soon investors realized that after the withdrawal of troops from the Pakistani borders, the recent threat may not have any relevance to the ground situation and resumed their covering operations.
Bulk of the support, however, remained confined to the leading blue chips as investors were not inclined to take even a calculated risk ahead of a long weekend on account of Eid holidays.
The KSE 100-share index again breached through the barrier of 2,300-point at 2,306.18, up 20.31 points as the strength of the prominent base shares spilled over to other counters.
Although political uncertainty is there, former finance minister, now advisor to the prime minister on economic affairs, Shaukat Aziz’s visit to the KSE on Tuesday evoked a lot of interest in the leading shares, enabling the market to wipe out initial losses.
“His visit could refuel the bulls owing to his initiatives on the on-going macroeconomic and privatization fronts and hence a bulls welcome”, one analyst said.
“I don’t think the rally was genuine and initiated perhaps to greet the PM Advisor with a bullish market”, one broker said “the former finance minister has done a lot of good to the investing people during his last three years’ tenure”.
The perception that he may give some positive cues to the things to happen in future on the corporate front enthused investors to invest at the current lows on the blue chip counters.
Current favourites, such as PTCL, Hub-Power, National Bank, Sui Northern, energy and fertilizer sectors were in the forefront of those, which attracted a lot of covering purchases.
Most analysts, however, are not inclined to predict about the future market outlook until political government is fairly stable and there is no danger of its destabilization by any faction of the split mandate.
“Much will depend on the on-going talks between the MMA and PML-Q on sharing power in the centre and if they succeed, the perception of a stable government in the centre will be achieved”, they added.
But until then investors will like to play safe as is being reflected by lower daily volumes for the last couple of sessions.
Leading gainers were led by Millat Tractors, Treet Corporation, up by Rs7.50 and Rs5.15. Other good gainers were led by Cherat Papers, Ferozsons Lab, Kohinoor Raiwind, Bolan Castings, Al-Ghazi Tractors, Pak-Suzuki Motors, Otsuka Pakistan, and Adamjee Insurance, up by Rs1.40 to Rs3.45.
Unilever Pakistan and Wyeth Pakistan were leading among the losers, off Rs20.50 and Rs27 respectively. Atlas Honda, Metropolitan Bank, BOC Pakistan, and Pakistan Reinsurance Co, fell by Rs1.05 to Rs16.
Trading volume rose to 145m shares from the previous 119m shares as advancing shares maintained a fair lead over the losing ones at 163 to 79, with 61 shares holding on to the last levels.
PTCL topped the list of most actives, sharply higher by 70 paisa at Rs23.05 on 49m shares, Hub-Power, steady five paisa at Rs28.65 on 29m shares, Sui Northern, firm by 15 paisa at Rs18.40 on 11m shares, Adamjee Insurance, up by Rs3.45 at Rs49.85 on 9m shares, PSO, off 90 paisa at Rs175.45 on 7m shares, National Bank, up by 70 paisa at Rs25.75 on 7m shares, Fauji Fertilizer, 75 paisa at Rs62.15 on 5m shares.
Other actives were led by Nishat Mills, firm by 40 paisa at 16.60 on 4m shares, ICI Pakistan, higher by 95 paisa at Rs46.15 also on 4m shares and FFC-Jordan Fertilizer, steady by five paisa at Rs7.95 on 2m shares.
FORWARD COUNTER: Barring PSO, which came in for active selling and sharply fell to finish at Rs176.50, off Rs1.90 on 6.750m shares, all other speculative shares ended higher under the lead of PTCL, up by 45 paisa at Rs20.50 on 6.282m shares.
The notable feature was that the matured November settlements were rung off the board and the December contracts assumed the role of ruling deliveries.
Hub-Power was traded unchanged at Rs28.75 on 5.286m shares, while Sui Northern Gas, was marked up by five paisa at Rs18.55 on 1.663m shares and Engro Chemical, higher by 65 paisa at Rs72.35 on 0.945m shares.
DEFAULTER COMPANIES: Brisk trading was witnessed on this counter where shares of 15 companies came in for alternate bouts of buying and selling.
Total turnover rose above 0.130m share mark, most active scrip being Sunshine Cotton, off 50 paisa at Rs0.40 on 90,000 shares followed by Pangrio Sugar, lower 15 paisa at Rs0.75 on 14,000 shares, Custodian Modaraba, firm by five paisa at Rs4.10 on 6,000 shares.
Allied Motors and Quice Foods were traded lower 25 paisa and 10 paisa at Rs11.25 and Rs1.50 on 4,000 and 5,000 shares respectively.