Stocks up on buying at cement, oil counters

Stocks ended up on Monday as investors cheered K-Electric sell-off deal, while small and mid caps led the volumes, dealers said.

Analyst Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp said stocks closed higher lead by selected oil, cement and fertilizers scrips on strong earnings outlook. 

“Upbeat urea and DAP off-take data for July, speculations on K-Electric deal pricing and CPEC projects played a catalyst role in the bullish close,” he said.     

The Pakistan Stock Exchange’s (PSX) benchmark 100-share Index closed higher 0.24 percent or 96.32 points to 40,023.02 points. The highest index of the day remained at 40,102.16 points, while the lowest level of the day was recorded at 39,926.09 points.

KSE 30-share Index rose 0.22 percent or 49.38 points to 22,820.72 points.

Turnover increased 27 million shares to 389.07 million shares. Trading value fell to Rs12.42 billion as against Rs15 billion. Market capital expanded to Rs8.04 trillion from Rs8.02 trillion. Out of 447 companies active, 260 ended up, 166 closed down while 21 remained unchanged.

Analyst Faisal Bilwani at Elixir Securities said index names saw relatively little interest as institutions traded cautiously while small and mid caps were abuzz with activity with top 30 slots on volumes being occupied by shares under Rs100.

Market opened positive with K-Electric (up 2.4 percent) attracting both retail and institutional interest after the company notified exchanges and confirmed reports of a potential stake-sale by its parent company. K-Electric traded over 30 percent of volumes and closed positive at the levels last seen January of last year as investors bet on favourable strike price.

Meanwhile, National Bank of Pakistan (up 4.9 percent) added to recent gains to close at the record high, following half yearly earnings last week. 

“We expect further gains as institutional investors track foreigners’ activity,” Bilwani said.  

Highest increase was recorded in shares of Murree Brewery, which rose by Rs52.41 to Rs1,100.73/share, followed by Service Ind Ltd that increased by Rs49.53 to Rs1,040.32/share. Major decline was noted in shares of Bata (Pak), which fell by Rs99.99 to Rs4,000.01/share, followed by Wyeth Pak Ltd that decreased by Rs85 to Rs1,900/share.

Significant turnover was recorded in stocks of K-Electric Ltd, Byco Petroleum, Pace (Pak) Ltd, Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Ltd, Bank of Punjab, Dewan Salman, Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited XD, Sui Southern Gas Company Limited, TRG Pak Limited and Jahangir Siddiqui Co.

K-Electric Ltd remained the volume leader with 49.73 million shares with an increase of 21 paisas to Rs9.09 per share. It was followed by Byco Petroleum with 22.56 million shares with an increase of Rs1.17 to Rs24.74 per share.

Shares’ turnover in the future contracts plunged to 35.50 million shares from 105.51 million shares traded in the previous session.