After four consecutive sessions of bearish activities, the equities at Pakistan's Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) ended the week on a positive note Friday with its main index jumping by almost 2.50 percent to end way above the psychological and crucial 11,500 levels.
The benchmark KSE 100-Index surged by 2.47 percent or 278.18 points to close at 11,561.67 levels, KSE All Share Index increased by 2.32 percent or 181.45 points to end above the psychological 8, 000 levels at 8,011.64, KSE 30-Index jumped by 2.92 percent or 308. 81 points to conclude at 10,895.09, whereas KMI 30-Index climbed by 3 percent or 626.03 points to finish the day and week at 21,494. 06 levels here.
During the week that ended on October 28, 2011, the KSE 100- Index gained 36.42 points owing to massively bullish trading session of Friday as three out of four sessions ended in the red zone in the shortened week owing to a National Holiday on Monday to mourn death of former Pakistani First Lady Begum Nusrat Bhutto.
Market registered slight decline of 7.96 points on Tuesday to end at 11,517.29, fell by 130.07 points to close at 11,387.22 on Wednesday, and lost another 103.73 points to close at 11,283.49 on Thursday, before bulls bounced back on Friday and added 278.18 points into the main index to close at 11,561.67 levels.
The final trading session of the week started amid a positive mood where local funds and institutions were seen buying positions in the fertilizer and cement stocks which propelled the main index above 11,500 levels going into the Friday prayers' break.
Pakistan Oilfields Limited remained in the limelight right throughout the day as investors took interest in its scrip which ended the day with 7.22 rupees increment at 357.51 rupees. Other notable price gainers were Fauji Fertilizer Company and Oil and Gas Development Company Limited with 8.77 rupees and 6.63 rupees surge in their respective prices to close at 184.20 rupees and 139. 33 rupees.
Pakistan State Oil surged by 10.55 rupees to end at 232.99 rupees, Attock Petroleum XD gained 18.21 rupees per share to close at 403.75 rupees, while National Refinery added 9.25 rupees in its per share value to finish at 309.62 rupees.
In the post Friday prayers' break part of the trading session on Friday, bulls continued maintaining the momentum as the main index hit the intraday highest level of 11,599.22 before a mild selling spree emerged owing to profit-booking at higher levels that clipped some of the gains.
Market analysts informed Xinhua that the investors finally welcomed the strong corporate results in the oil, cement, and fertilizer sectors where positive results by Fauji Fertilizer, Oil and Gas Development Company, and Pakistan Oilfields Limited swept the investors' interest.
Syed Faran Rizvi, Research Analyst at Invisor Securities, said that the nerves also eased after the eurozone deal lower Greek debt burden which increased the investors' appetite for risk all across the world stock markets.
He added that Pakistan bourse followed the foreign bulls and investors remained busy in buying positions at lower levels despite of the fact that things are not looking promising on political front where Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) was holding a huge rally in eastern city of Lahore today.
He was of the view that the market is expected to register bullish trade in the coming days, especially after regaining support levels above 11,500.
World markets continued gaining grounds Friday with foreigners emerging as active buyers after sentiments improved over a eurozone deal to rescue Greece from its huge debt pile.
The bullish trend was also visible in oil trade as the crude strengthened over better than expected US data injected confidence in the global economy.
Market volumes improved by 11.325 million shares to 81.083 million shares on Friday as against trading of 69.758 million shares recorded on Thursday as investors welcomed the strong corporate results in the oil, fertilizer and cement sectors.
During the outgoing week, market registered total volumes of 301.01 million shares at daily average turnovers of 75.25 million shares. The KSE registered turnovers of 69.23 million shares on Tuesday, 80.94 million shares on Wednesday, 69.76 million shares on Thursday, and 81.08 million shares on Friday.
Market capitalization surged by 67.642 billion rupees (777.505 million U.S. dollars) to 3.021 trillion rupees (34.73 billion U.S. dollars) on Friday when compared with a market capitalization of 2. 953 trillion rupees (33.95 billion U.S. dollars) recorded the other day.
Fahim Akhtar, General Secretary, Association for Investors' Awareness, told this scribe that the local market eventually started matching the performance of global stocks and surged significantly on Friday to erase almost all of the negativity of the last week.
He said that the market staged a rebound because of good valuations as it was oversold in the last few days while anticipation of good Fauji Fertilizer Company results helped the fertilizer sector to outperform.
"Banks and funds were major buyers realizing good values for long term but the sore issue remained selling by the foreign investors," he added.
Talking about the trading activities, he stated that the low volumes are a huge cause of concern for the market players which is also denting hard the brokerage operations.
Analysts told Xinhua that the key index had been trading below the Bollinger Band therefore a short-term pull back was always on the cards. They added that the investors should be mentally ready for another selling spree at the higher levels in the next week.
There was also a new in the market that the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) has made capacity allocations to import 1.4 Billion Cubic Feet Per Day (BCFD) of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) to three companies, i.e. Global Energy (500MMCFD), Engro Corporation (500MMCFD) and Gasport (400MMCFD), with first delivery expected by the mid of 2012, which also helped buoying investors.
The State Bank of Pakistan said Thursday that the country's total liquid foreign reserves increased by 6.8 million U.S. dollars to 17.209 billion U.S. dollars in the week that ended on October 21, 2011.
As per the figures released by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited (NCCPL) for Friday, the foreign investors remained on the selling side despite of the positive trading activities at the KSE as they net sold shares worth 116.276 million rupees (1.336 million U.S. dollars).
During the week under review, the foreign investors continued their exodus from the Pakistani stock markets as they net sold shares worth 684.204 million rupees (7.864 million U.S. dollars).
In broader market, a total of 306 companies changed hands during the course of the day as the trade largely remained in the blue chip stocks on Friday as values of 138 issues advanced, 86 declined, whereas prices of 82 other scrips stayed unchanged.
Dera Ghazi Khan Cement Limited was the top trade company of the day with trading of 15.201 million shares in its scrip, followed by Fauji Fertilizer Bin Qasim Limited, Fatima Fertilizer Company, Lucky Cement, and Lotte Pakistan PTA Limited with turnovers of 6. 918 million, 5.738 million, 4.731 million, and 3.746 million shares respectively.
UniLever Pakistan Limited emerged as the top price gainer of the day with 147.55-rupee (1.69 U.S. dollars) increment in its per share price to close at 5,831.94 rupees (67.03 U.S. dollars) while Wyeth Pakistan Limited was the biggest drag in the main index as it lost 36.01 rupees (41.39 U.S. cents) in its per share price to end at 699.99 rupees (8.04 U.S. dollars).
