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Thursday March 28, 2024

Stocks extend gains on buying in blue-chips

By our correspondents
May 24, 2017

Stocks extended gains on Tuesday with the benchmark 100-share Index up one and a half percent as investors continued to take position in blue-chip shares ahead of MSCI upgrade, dealers said.

Analyst Arhum Ghous at JS Research said the market continued its bullish momentum with strong upward movement in most Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) Emerging Markets (EM) stocks.

Index provider MSCI reclassified Pakistan as an emerging market from frontier market status and added six securities in its main board and 27 shares in small-cap index, effective June 1. 

The Pakistan Stock Exchange’s benchmark KSE 100-share Index closed up 1.51 percent or 773.46 points to close at 52,146.97 points. The highest index of the day remained at 52,243.89 points, while the lowest level of the day was recorded at 51,373.51 points. KSE 30-share Index also increased 1.77 percent or 483.24 points to end at 27,722.37 points.

Turnover rose 83 million shares to 323.92 million shares. Trading value increased to Rs19.62 billion from Rs12.57 billion, while market capital was up to Rs10.32 trillion from Rs10.19 trillion. Of 417 companies, 273 closed up, 132 ended down and 12 remained unchanged.

“Moving forward, it is recommended that investors accumulate value stocks from MSCI EM Index on dips,” Ghous said.

Index point leaders were OGDC (up 5 percent), MCB (rising 4 percent), HBL (inching up 1.4 percent), UBL (increasing 2.2 percent) and Engro (climbing 2.1 percent) with positive contribution of 345 points, while JDWS (down 1.7 percent), POL (falling 0.2 percent), BOP (inching down one percent), NCPL (decreasing one percent) and KOHC (dropping 0.6 percent) eroded 11 points from the index. On the sector front, banks added 234 points, fertiliser 119 points and exploration and production 117 points.

Analyst Adnan Sami Shaikh at Topline Securities said the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan introduced a post-close trading session to accommodate an expected hike in trading activity with only six sessions left till MSCI EM upgrade.

“The post-close session would be similar to afterhours trading in the developed markets except that securities would be traded at a fixed price,” Shaikh said.   On the back of noise in the market regarding the imposition of anti-dumping duty on chemical imports, Lotte Chemical led the market volumes closing at its upper circuit. Fertiliser sector also recorded gains with Dawood Hercules (up 5.0 percent) closing at its upper circuit.

Highest increase was recorded in Wyeth Pak Ltd XD by Rs120.90 to close at Rs2,539.05/share, followed by Millat Tractors that rose Rs57 to end at Rs1,526.86/share. Major decrease was registered in Sapphire Fiber XD by Rs62.50 to end at Rs1,187.50/share, followed by Sanofi Aventis XD that fell Rs37.87 to close at Rs2,092.33/share.

Significant turnover was recorded in Lotte Chemical, TRG Pak Ltd, Chakwal Spinning, Dewan Motors, K-Electric Ltd, Aisha Steel, Oil and Gas Development Company, WorldCall Telecom, Kohinoor Spinning and Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Ltd. Lotte Chemical remained the volume leader with 40.67 million shares with an increase of 96 paisas to close at Rs12.64/share. It was followed by Lotte Chemical with 40.67 million shares with an increase of Rs1.02 to end at Rs285.40/share.

Turnover in the future contracts increased to 119.28 million shares from 64.13 million shares traded in the previous session.