Daily Times

KARACHI: Pakistan equities traded another day volatile with benchmark KSE-100 Index knocking down psychological support of 38,000 intra-day before recovering sharply to end the day in green. The KSE-100 gained 43.4 points to close at 38525.11 level.

The Index lost ground within first half hour of trading as wider market barring Oils deepened losses on ongoing political noise as a deadlock between the government and opposition party (PPP) over passing of Delimitation Bill raised concerns on timely elections (which are currently scheduled for August 2018).

Later on, value buyers made entry and cherry picked Index names with attractive valuations. Oils stood strong throughout with investors not only tracking gains in global crude but also currency depreciation as rupee shed another ~2% against dollar in interbank market on Tuesday (PKR/USD closed at 110.75).

This also generated interest in Hub Power HUBC PA +3% as it topped the leader board and contributed most points to KSE100 Index. Stocks showed recovery amid subdued noise over geopolitical tensions and recovery in global crude oil prices. Early session pressure remained on concerns for rupee volatility against dollar. Receipt of $2.5bn in eurobond and sukuk issues supporting dwindling foreign exchange reserves and surging current account deficit, reports on surging fertilizer, auto and cement sales in Nov ’17 and rising local cement prices played a catalyst role in major recovery at PSX, Ahsan Mehanti said.

Recently volatility in rupee also raised sector specific confusion where after closing at Rs 108.75 to the dollar yesterday, Pak Rupee slipped again today to a high of Rs 111.5 before settling around Rs 110.6/Rs111, analyst at Topline securities commented.

Participation improved, volumes increase 51% d/d while traded value rose 46%.

Top index point leaders were HUBC (+3%), HBL (+1.6%), ENGRO (+2.1%), PSO (+3.3%) & POL (+1.7%) adding 160 points, while stocks including DAWH ( 2 8%) DGKC ( 2 2%) LUCK ( 1%) INIL ( 4 6%) and FFC ( 1%) withheld 70 points including DAWH (?2.8%), DGKC (?2.2%), LUCK (?1%), INIL (?4.6%) & FFC (?1%) withheld 70 points. On the sector front; Power Generation and Distribution added 76 points, Commercial Banks added 43 points, Oil & Gas Exploration Companies added 41points, on the flip side Cement took away 37 points, Insurance fell 26 points, Engineering was down 22 points.

Published in Daily Times, December 13^th 2017.