Stocks not out of the woods; results likely rescuer

Futures rollover is to put a dampener on bullish sentiments in the upcoming sessions, but results from big tickets may support the market to regain the lost points, dealers said.  

Arif Habib Limited, in a report, said the market is expected to remain range-bound next week, marked by the rollover week, which can keep the market volatile. 

“Volumes are expected to remain skewed towards stocks, which are expected to announce result next week,” the brokerage said. 

The benchmark KSE 100-share Index of the Pakistan Stock Exchange witnessed bearish momentum for the first three days and fell 0.41 percent or 172.88 points to 41,291.43 points.  

The average traded volume increased 16.9 percent, while average traded value rose 6.0 percent week on week. Foreign institutional portfolio investment (FIPI) recorded an outflow of $8.4 million, compared to inflow of $2.2 million last week.  

Upcoming results include EFERT, BAFL, MCB, PAEL, INDU, LUCK, DGKC and NML. Amongst major sectors, cement sector may rebound as manufacturers are likely to pass on the impact of coal price increase. KASB Securities, in its weekly analysis, said cherry-picking will continue as investors will likely remain sidelined on rising political tensions and the start of futures rollover week.  A flurry of quarterly results is expected next week with some big scrips from cement, engineering and banks due to announce their results. 

“With lack of triggers, next week’s activity will largely be dominated by quarterly results and geopolitical/local political situation,” said KASB. Analyst Faizan Ahmed at JS Research said in the mainstream sectors, most of the interest was tilted towards oil marketing companies (up 2.6 percent) on account of better than expected results, textiles (increasing 3.4 percent) and exploration and production (rising 1.1 percent).  Cement stocks were down 4.4 percent and fertiliser shares 1.3 percent on profit-taking.

Elixir Research said banks gained traction on result euphoria after value hunting. UBL and HBL contributed 54.1 points to KSE 100-share Index. Oil sector continued its rally, tracking international oil prices, while major contributors were Oil and Gas Development Company (up 38.7 points) and Pakistan Petroleum Limited (rising 33 points).  Cement sector declined 4.4 percent on account of surging international coal prices. Lucky Cement and DG Khan Cement dragged the benchmark index down 126.2 points. Among the individual stocks, Attock Petroleum Limited, Sui Northern Gas Ltd, Bank of Punjab, Ghani Glass and Nestle Pakistan Limited were the major gainers, while International Steel Limited, Orix Leasing, Searle Pakistan, DG Khan Cement and Bestway Cement were the major losers.