Stocks end flat in choppy trade

Stocks ended flat in choppy trade on Wednesday, bouncing off the day’s lows helped by power utility K-Electric after a provincial governor’s comments rekindled hopes of its early takeover by Shanghai Electric, dealers said.
Analyst Danish Ladhani at JS Global Capital said weak trading session was witnessed at the local bourse due to prevailing political uncertainty in the country.
“Strong volume in KEL (up 10.11 percent) was witnessed as investor confidence on the company increased on the back of possibility of Shanghai Electric to take over it soon.”
The Pakistan Stock Exchange’s benchmark KSE-100 shares index gained 0.11 percent or 43.05 points to close at 40,591.88 points. KSE-30 shares index gained 0.27 percent or 54.90 points to close at 20,491.05 points. As many as 362 scrips were active of which 180 advanced, 166 declined and 16 remained unchanged.
The ready market volumes stood at 156.98 million shares as compared with the turnover of 101.79 million shares a day earlier.
An analyst at Topline Securities said equities opened on a buoyant note, swiftly surging to a high of 193 points led by E&Ps, where US API’s expectation of a significant drawdown of inventory led to overnight surge in oil price. “However this was short lived as these levels triggered some profit taking.”
Other key sectors, barring oils struggled for direction and witnessed usual dreary activity as institutional investors remained sidelined.
Major dent on the index came from Engro Corp (down 2.5 percent) and Hub Power (down 1.8 percent) on reported foreign selling, while Honda Atlas Car (down 3.9 percent) dented the index after reporting poor quarterly earnings.
Going forward, analysts expect volatile market as benchmark index consolidate near current levels while institutional flows will continue to guide market direction.
Companies reflecting highest gains include Unilever Foods up Rs100 to close at Rs6,900/share and Pakistan Tobacco up Rs75.93 to close at Rs1,594.62/share.
Companies reflecting most losses include Sapphire Fiber down Rs41.75 to close at Rs793.25/share and Honda Atlas Cars down Rs22.63 to end at Rs559.54/share.
 Highest volumes were witnessed in K-Electric with a turnover of 77.159 million shares. The scrip gained 54 paisas to close at Rs5.88/share. Worldcall Telecom was second with a turnover of 8.3 million shares. It gained 14 paisas to close at Rs3.04/share. TRG Pakistan was third with a turnover of 6.9 million shares. It gained 54 paisas to finish at Rs36.43/share.