The Karachi share market gained another 177 points Thursday to close at 34,085.74. The pre-budget rally was led by trading in second and third-tier stocks in cement and power sectors. While the foreign and local fund managers are believed to have been supportive to the index the foreign portfolio investment showed a negative trend of $3.2 million net selling. The trading turnover stood at 362.21 million shares compared to 304.24 million of last session. The value of shares traded rose to Rs 14.16 billion from Rs 10.74 million.
Of the total 377 issues, 220 posted gains, 135 lost their worth and that of 22 stayed unchanged. The market capitalisation accumulated to Rs 7.344 trillion. Southern Electric led the day's volumes by 38.3 million traded stocks each closing at Rs 3.99. Other scrips that performed well were Japan Power 35.9 million, K-Electric 34 million, TRG Pakistan 28.8 million, Pak Elektron 20.6 million, Maple Leaf Cement 9.4 million, Dewan Cement 8.7 million, Inter Steel Limited 8.4 million, PTCL 8.2 million and Pace (Pak) Limited 7.8 million. The futures trade also rose to 35.48 million contracts against 24.99 million.
"Stocks closed bullish led by second and third-tier stocks in cement and power sector in the pre-budget rally amid speculations ahead of federal budget announcements Friday (today)," said Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corp. The cement giants such as DGKC, FCCL, MLCF and LUCK closed higher to gain 0.4, 0.7, 3.6 and 0.2 percent, respectively. What analysts called it sideboard scrips remained in the limelight through the day's trade with SEPCO, JPGL, KEL, TRG and PAEL witnessed strong volumes.
Strong economic outlook, record PSDP commitments in the federal budget and falling borrowing costs for leverage scrips played a catalytic role in bullish activity, Mehanti added. "The bullish momentum witnessed in the cement sector is mainly attributed to the recent discount rate cut in addition to market anticipation of a healthy allocation towards the PSDP in the upcoming budget," said Umair Hasan of JS Global.
Amongst significant news, rumours surfaced of a possible stay in the implementation of GIDC, which translated into renewed investor interest in the fertiliser sector, he said. FATIMA, EFERT, ENGRO and FFBL all ended 2.6, 0.7, 1.4 and 1.3 positive with strong volumes.
After the recent recovery in the banking sector, mixed sentiment prevailed in the particular sector with subdued volumes. Also, textile sector remained promising on the back of what analysts said expectations of the government providing concessions to the particular sector ahead of the federal budget. NML, KTML, GATM ended 1.6, 5 and 2 percent up with the sector remaining positive overall. "Continuous support from foreign and local fund managers helped the KSE-100 index," viewed Mohammad Rizwan at Topline Securities.
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