Daily Times

Pakistan equities closed positive on Wednesday with Benchmark KSE-100 Index settling above 42,800 points level, up 98 points.

Market kicked off positive however thin volumes in main board resulted in Index entering in red zone in the early hours. Afterwards, stocks witnessed a choppy behavior and Index traded in a 400 points range and closed slightly positive. Unconfirmed news of increase in Cement retail price of up-to Rs 10/bag in North give new momentum in the Cement sector asDG Khan Cement (DGKC) gaining 4.0 percent, Fauji Cement (FCCL) gaining 4.0 percent, Maple leaf cement (MLCF) gaining 3.7 percent all closed higher on reported local buying.

On the results front, MCB Bank announced its half year earning slightly lower than street expectations, while Aisha Steels (ASL) also announced its annual result.

“We see market to remain range-bound in the coming sessions with flows from foreigners and local institutions to further guide the market direction amid ongoing result reason”, said Elixir Securities’ analyst Murtaza Jafar.

On the economic front, the two tax amnesty schemes, Voluntary Declaration of Domestic Assets Act, 2018 for undisclosed income and domestic assets & Foreign Assets (Declaration and Repatriation) Act, 2018 for undisclosed foreign assets have expired on July 31, 2018.

Key sectors including Cements, OMCs drove the market by institutional flows. Financials saw some respite at bottom after some profit-taking witnesses previous day. Wednesday’s major heavyweights namely, Oil Gas Development Company (OGDC), Lucky Cement, Pakistan State Oil (PSO) and Engro Fertiliser cumulatively contributed +51 points.

Traded volumes slightly improved by 1.4 percent day-on-day (DoD) to 278 million shares while value traded decreased to $ 85 million.

An equity analyst Maaz Mulla expects market to remain range bound with flows from local and foreign institutions directing the market.

Published in Daily Times, August 2^nd 2018.