KARACHI: Pakistan equities closed Wednesday’s session with little changed after recovering from morning declines which had pulled benchmark KSE100 Index lower near 45,600 level intra-day. The benchmark KSE 100 index surged by 19.11 points to close at 45998.81 level.
Market started on a weaker note and notable blue chips across Oils, Financials and Cements along with select index names were dragged down by mid-day on selling amid dearth of serious buyers on screen.
Political noise remained a dampener as former PM Nawaz kicked off his defiant March, that will continue for more than two days, from Capital Islamabad to his home town Lahore. Former prime Minister is expected to speak to his supporters at rallies on the way. This will keep the market in check during the week, analysts believe.
Although wider market activity was lower as evident from under 215 million shares exchanging hands on KSE All Index, however volumes and turnover on benchmark KSE100 Index jumped 21% and 77% respectively as compared to previous day as local institutions reportedly cherry-picked notable names in the second half of trading and aided in market recovery.
Meanwhile, Maple Leaf Cements MLCF PA -3.9% traded lower and churned most volumes since early July on market chatter of possible right issue that dented sentiments.
PSO (+2.8%), ISL (+5%), EFERT (+2.9%), MCB (+1.1%) and TRG (+4.3%) contributed 107 points to index gain whereas POL (-0.5%),
KTML (-2%) and PKGS (-2.2%) eroded 23 points.
ASL and ISL closed near upper limits on the back of surge in international CRC prices which approach year high. Karachi Electric (KEL) announced its results for 4QFY16, reporting earnings of Rs10bn (EPS Rs 0.4), down 17% YoY, mainly owing to lower than expected utilization of tax credits. The stock was up 2%.
Traded volumes were up 4% to 214 million shares, the traded value rose to Rs14bn/$131million.
Aisha Steel Mill topped the list of volume leaders with 19.74 million shares traded at the bourse followed by K-Electric 14.8 million shares, TRG Pak 14.9 million shares, Azgard Nine 10 million shares and Summit Bank 9 million shares. Shares of 386 companies were traded of which 243 stocks closed higher and 130 declined while 13 remained unchanged.
“Despite today’s pull back we expect market to remain under pressure and trade in a narrow range despite earnings related excitement as politics is expected to keep a check on any bounce back for remainder of this week”, commented an analyst at Elixir Securities.
Moreover, the local stock market is also likely to follow its international peers as the latter slide in response to US President Donald Trump’s promise to attack North Korea for its nuclear ambitions saying “they will be met with fire, fury…the likes of which the world has never seen”.
