KSE gains 114 points amid security concerns

KARACHI - The stock market witnessed bullish activity on the first day of the week and stocks ended more than 1 percent higher on Monday, despite a suicide car bomb attack in Lahore, with the market enjoying a boost in confidence from foreign buying last week. Banking, oil & gas and fertilizer sectors interested foreign investors the most.
The Karachi Stock Exchanges benchmark 100-share index, which opened in the green zone with a gain of 10.94 points, rose 113.90 points, or 1.18 percent, to end at 9,740.19 points on turnover of 125.6 million shares.
On the other hand, the KSE 30-index closed at 10210.88 with a gain of 109.40 points.
The KMI 30-index closed at 14554.47 with a gain of 143.05 points. All shares index closed at 6885.50 with a gain of 77.74 points.
Trading activity was better as compared to the last trading session as the ready market volume stood at 174.310m as compared to last trading sessions 157.226m. Future market volume, however, stood at 2.689m shares as compared to 5.268m shares of last trading session.
Market capitalization stood over Rs2.784tr, as total trades decreased to 90,061 as compared to last trading sessions 91,587, while 223 companies advanced, 170 declined and 11 remained unchanged.
Highest volumes were witnessed in LOTPTA at 27.211m closed at Rs11.11 with a gain of Rs1.00 followed by FATIMA at 20.170m closed at Rs13.26 with a gain of Rs0.30, WTL at 10.783m closed at Rs4.94 with a gain of 0.37.
Ahsan Mehanti at Shehzad Chamdia Securities said, Positive sentiment continued on higher international oil prices and rising global capital markets despite bomb blast in Lahore and renewed security concerns in the country.
Some news that affected the trading activities were: Lahore blast; PSO to pay Rs12b to ME refiner in 2wks; Government urged to ban export of diesel; and APL keen to buy 100 percent shares of Admore.
Expensive and high priced stocks continued to witness profit taking mainly by those who have been accumulators in the recent adjustment, thus restricting the local bourse from unprecedented rise.
The foreigners are todays buyers that kept the interest by the day traders on the higher side, short-term gains were however booked mainly due to the absence of user friendly leverage product.
Hasnain Asghar Ali, at Aziz Fida Husein, said, 'Since the developments mainly related to economy, inflation monetary issues, revenue shortfalls still persist besides others yet to re-surface still persist, recommendation to stay cautious continues, while off-loading is recommended in the event of excitement led run up in the expensive stocks.