KARACHI, March 27: Shares at the Karachi Stock Exchange rallied on Tuesday led by the low-priced scrips that pushed KSE-100 index above the 13,400 level.
Trading interest dominated any concerns over the law and order situation. Investors were enthusiastic about rumours over some positive news by the end of current week, on the reformed Capital Gains Tax implementation regime from April 1.
Samar Iqbal, equity dealer at Topline Securities, said that the activity was concentrated in mid and big capped stocks.
Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corporation observed that the stocks turned bullish based on institutional interest in blue-chip cement, oil and banking stocks on hopes for improvement in Pak-US relations following the meeting of Pakistan Prime Minister with US President in Seoul for joint efforts on nuclear safety.Sibtain Mustafa, analyst at Elixir Securities, mentioned that banking stocks steered the index with National Bank NBP ending the day at its upper-lock with whispers of foreign buying.
Following the momentum, majority of banking stocks bounced from the lows as speculative money found its way. Investors continued to build positions primarily on expectations of higher earnings and low provisioning in quarterly results.
The KSE-100 index gained 163 points on Tuesday to close the day’s trading at 13,449.73 points. Volume of business scaled to 352.8 million shares, up from 278.0 million shares a day earlier.
The highest gainers for the day were Nestle Pakistan, which rose by Rs114.58 to close at Rs4,476.41, followed by Indus Dyeing up by Rs18.43 to Rs411.85. The largest falls were recorded in Colgate Palmolive down by Rs45.13 to Rs857.48 and Unilever Pakistan Ltd declining by Rs19 to Rs5,681.00.
In a total of 375 active issues, 204 shares ended in the plus column; 113 in minus and 58 shares remained unchanged.
Among the most active issues, WorldCall Telecom topped with trading in 27.7 million shares, up by 22 paisa to close at Rs3.30.It was followed by Azgard Nine showing turnover of 26.4 million shares, higher by Re1 to end at Rs9.87.
Fauji Cement saw trading in 24.3 million shares, up 25 paisa to Rs5.55; NIB Bank Limited down 2 paisa to Rs2.80 on 17.3 million shares; Lafarge Pakistan gaining 19 paisa to Rs3.97 on 16.5 million shares; D.G. Khan Cement up by Rs1.59 to end at Rs33.69 on 14.8 million shares; Japan Power adding 36 paisa to Rs2.07 on 13.0 million shares; Bank Alfalah up 60 paisa to Rs15.18 on 10.7 million shares; SilkBank edged higher by 7 paisa to Rs2.92 on 10 million shares and TRG Pakistan down 23 paisa to Rs4.18 on 9.8 million shares.
FUTURES CONTRACTS: On the Futures counter, D.G. Khan Cement March contract, led with gains of Rs1.57 to end at Rs33.74 on 3.5 million shares. Its April contract also jumped Rs1.60 to Rs34.08 on 3.2 million shares.
National Bank of Pakistan was up by Rs1.87 to Rs40.99 on 1.3 million shares. Arif Habib Corporation Limited also saw strong gains with its March contract up Rs1.03 to close at Rs32.42 on 1.9 million shares and its April contract up by Rs1.20 to close at Rs32.64 on 1.7 million shares.