Handsome earnings reported by Pakistan Telecommunication Ltd, for the six months ended December 31, 2003 helped share market to close on a positive note where business showed small gain as compared to last session.
The KSE-100 index showed an increase of 12.53 points, or 0.26 percent to 4809.52 as compared with 4796.99 of Wednesday. The volume amounted to 265 million shares as against 230 million shares.
PTCL profit recorded an improvement of 34 percent while earning per share was at 2.6 rupees a share for the first half of the current fiscal year.
The scrip took the driving seat and led the index to close in the positive column. Hubco continued to under-perform the market and lost 70 paisa.
However traders expect that the scrip to gain some momentum after the Ashura as the board of directors are meeting on March 4 to declare cash dividend.
Hasnain Asghar of Aziz Fidahusein said that availability of fresh funds at lower levels allowed the punters to take a cautious entry. Offloading in power giant ahead of dividend announcement however kept the nervousness alive and a range bound session was witnessed.
A healthy six months announcement from PTCL allowed the bulls a breath of fresh air.
Technically, the ability of the index to close around 4803-4810 indicates a cautious surge as the Friday session will keep the punters on the back foot, support will continue to stay around 4790-4794 while overhead resistance stays 4826-4833.
Tariq Hussain Khan, manager research at Live Securities said that the major driving force was the improved corporate earnings by blue chip items. Among the other contributing factors, the reduction in COT volumes, which helped restored the confidence of investors'.
The trendsetters opened higher but quickly dissipated. Buying interest picked before the closure of the session and stocks like PSO, PTCL, ICI, KESC and Fauji improved in a noticeable fashion, Aadil Ehtesham from Multiline Securities said. Investors have turned more cautious regarding the near-term, as the market have been advocating a more conservative investment approach for long term investors. But we would suggest investors to take exposure in the stock market.
PTCL on a business of 65.693 million shares showed an increase of 30 paisa to Rs 39.90, OGDC gained 90 paisa to Rs 51.20 on a turnover of 37.766 million shares, Hubco closed at Rs 37.65, ie lower by 75 paisa on business of 28.6 million shares, ICP SEMF moved up Rs 49.75 from Rs 49.10 on total deals of 13.132 million shares and PIAC denoted an increase of 35 paisa to Rs 24.80 on turnover of 10.048 million shares.
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