Karachi Stock Exchange end lower, rupee firms

KARACHI: Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) ended down on Thursday following a fall in world stocks, but rebounded from early losses as bargain hunters accumulated fertiliser shares amid hopes of healthy corporate profits, dealers said.

KSE benchmark 100-share index closed 0.41 percent, or 46.34 points, lower at 11,264.95 points on turnover of 58.45 million shares. The KSE-index made an intra-day low of 11,107.27 points.

"Renewed investor interest was seen in stocks with attractive valuations and on hopes of healthy earnings like Engro," said Sajid Bhanji, director at Arif Habib Ltd.

Engro Corp, due to announce results on Friday, ended 4.97 percent higher at 136.01 rupees.

In the currency market, the rupee ended slightly firmer at 86.30/36 to the dollar, compared with Wednesday's close of 86.32/37, because of higher remittances from overseas Pakistanis.

According to the official data, remittances rose 38.57 percent to $1.1 billion in the first month of 2011/12 fiscal year, compared with $791.18 million in the same period last year.

In the money market, overnight rates rose to 13.40 percent, compared with the previous day's close of 10.60 percent amid tight liquidity in the interbank market.

Dealers said there were scheduled outflows of 181 billion rupees ($2.1 billion) against inflows of 175 billion rupees.

There are scheduled outflows of 86 billion rupees on Friday.

Copyright Reuters, 2011