100-Index closes above 10,000
The benchmark KSE 100-index closed 179 points up, gaining 1.8pc, at 10,153 points. KSE 30-index rose 228pts, earning 2.33pc, at 10,061pts. KSE All-shares Index up 119pts, 1.71pc, closed at 7,110pts
KARACHI: Bullish activities continued at the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) last week which ended 1.8 per cent up above 10,100 as investors took positions in oil, cement and banking stocks on expected launch of leverage product, improved economic numbers, and hopes of good corporate results.
The benchmark KSE 100-index closed up 179 points, 1.8 per cent, at 10,153 points, KSE 30-index ended up 228 points, 2.33 per cent, at 10,061 points and KSE all-share index gained 119 points, 1.71 per cent, to close at 7,110 points.
Index touched highest level of 10,259 points and a lowest of 9,945 points during the week.
Angela Memon, analyst at JS Global Capital said that the week began on a bullish note amid the weekend's positive news flow of some consensus on CGT's modalities and finalisation of recommendations for the introduction of leveraged products.
"Furthermore, economic data for FY10 depicted improvement in the overall economic fundamentals enabling the market to close in the green during first three trading sessions. Towards the end of the week, investors broadly preferred to book profits keeping the index under pressure," Angela said.
She said that the cement sector continued rallying this week on expectations of funding to be announced for construction of the Diamer-Bhasha dam by the FoDP. The oil & gas sector also performed well mainly owing to foreign interest in OGDC.
The current account deficit improved to $3.5 billion from $9.3 billion in FY09 owing to higher remittances and coalition support funds from the US. Inflation figures also showed improvement as CPI for FY10 came down to 11.73 per cent from 20.77 per cent in FY09.
The week started with positive activities during the first three days. On Monday, after some intraday bullish activities due to buying on higher international oil prices, hopes of early launch of leverage product, and foreign interest index ended the day with a marginal gain of four points.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, buying mainly in oil, banking and cement stocks ahead of the result season and expected launch of a leverage product allowed the index to gain 135 and 72 points respectively at the end of the day. On the other hand, higher international oil prices and improving economic numbers too supported the bullish activities.
As the market was witnessing some continued positive activities since last few days. Therefore, market trailed the decline in regional stock markets. Therefore, despite buying by the foreigners, index closed the day with a loss of 91 points.
Buying in oil stocks over the news of discovery in OGDC well and foreign interest recalled the bulls at the exchange on Friday where index closed the day 58 points up.
However, investor participation was low as they preferred to be on the sidelines waiting for the outcome of the meeting on margin trading.
According to NCCPL, there was a net foreign buying of $5.7 million last week while on the local side companies did a net selling of six million dollar.
Investor participation too remained impressive throughout the week as 401 million shares changed hands during the week, showing a 31 per cent or 125 million shares rise compared to 276 million shares a week earlier. Average daily turnover stood at 80.2 million shares, up 31 per cent or 25 million shares over an average turnover of 55.2 million shares during the previous week.
Out of total 421 active issues, 267 advanced and 136 declined while 18 issues remained unchanged.