Daily Times

The market finally saw some daylight on Tuesday after 4 consecutive sessions of closing in the red zone, with the KSE-100 closing up 268 points at 41, 246 points level.

The market kicked off the day on a positive tone, reaching an intraday high of +548 points.

Major heavyweights, namely Habib Bank Limited (HBL) gaining 0.10 percent Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) gaining 1.23 percent Engro gaining 2.30 percent, Pakistan Oil Fields (POL) gaining 1.23 percent and Lucky Cement gaining 0.28 percent cumulatively contributed +90 points to the overall index.

Traded volumes increased by 8 percent over Monday’s session to 180 million shares, while value traded increased to $ 62 million. Volume leaders were Power Cement with 0.96 gains, Bank of Punjab (BOP) with 0.25 percent decline and TRG with 2.82 percent gain. Some relief was seen at the local bourse as buying interest was seen from foreigners. Mixed sentiment was seen in Financials, where HBL (+0.10%) closed in the green, while United Bank Limited (UBL) losing 0.08 percent and MCB Bank losing 0.40 percent closed in negative territory.

In Cements, Lucky Cement gaining 0.28 percent, DG Khan Cement gaining 1.31 percent and Fauji Cement Company Limited (FCCL) gaining 2.86 percent closed in the positive zone.

An equity analyst Danish Ladhani expects market to remain volatile with flows from local and foreign institutions directing the market following the General Elections 2018.

The KSE-100 Index surged by more than 500 points in the first couple of hours in Tuesday’s session, but it consequently pared gains to close at 41,246.09.

Ismail Iqbal Securities’ analyst said the reasons behind recovery included sharp plunge in the index of 2,705 points in the previous four sessions, which brought stocks to very attractive levels, and positive foreign portfolio investment yesterday after outflows of $ 21.4 million in the previous two sessions.

Published in Daily Times, June 27^th 2018.