Foreign Buying Adds to Karachi Stock Exchange

KARACHI: Bulls continued to stay at Karachi Stock Exchange on Friday as its key index ended above 9,300 levels on continued buying by the foreign investors and expectations of reduction in interest rates; however, some profit-taking at the end reduced the green numbers.

The benchmark KSE 100-Index jumped up by 55 points or 0.6 per cent to close at 9,306 points. KSE 30-Index jumped by 51 points or 0.52 per cent to close at 9,825 points while KSE All-Share Index grew by 38 points or 0.58 per cent to close at 6,593 points.

"Attractive foreign inflows in the week pursued investors to remain on buying side," said Mohammad Sohail, Chief Executive of Topline Securities.

Furthermore, news regarding earlier than expected commencement of additional oil and gas from Nashpa pulled E&P stock prices. Speculation of Warid-Telenor deal again attracted investors' attention in Bank Alfalah which stood as volume leader of the day. Volumes remained dull due to weekend effect, he added.

Trading activities started on a positive note with a gain of 35 points. Thereafter, continued buying by the investors mainly in oil, fertiliser and banking sectors on expectations of reduction in interest rates further supported the market.
Foreign investors did buying worth $0.498 million, according to the data released by National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited (NCCPL).

Rumors of Warid-Telenor deal and positive news from the oil sector also invited buying interest. Therefore, market closed the first session with a gain of 82 points at 9,334 points.

Bulls then managed to stay during the second session too where at about 2:59pm index touched its intraday high of 9,381 points (+ve 130 points). However, due to last-day-phobia, the investors preferred to book profits at higher levels which affected the gains.

Investor participation saw some improvement as 140 million shares traded hands which is 32 million shares more as compared to a turnover of 108 million shares a day earlier. Out of total 372 active issues, 193 advanced and 161 declined while 18 issues remained unchanged.