Stock market goes against popular notion, gains 174 points

KARACHI - The stock market went against popular notion on Tuesday as KSE-100 index gained 174 points amid tension that prevailed in city in connection with 2nd anniversary of 12 May massacre in Karachi. On Tuesday, the investors were fearing erosion in value and index of stock market because of tension, but the market stunned the stakeholders and analysts by gaining a significant strength. Interestingly, during the past couple of weeks, the stock market remained in selling pressure due to security concerns relating to May 12 strike and military operation against militants. Peaceful atmosphere in the city encouraged the investors towards investing at the KSE as the benchmark 100-share index added 174 points on Tuesday, a stock market expert said. Market bounced back after yesterdays lowest volumes of 70.94mn, and fortunately peaceful atmosphere drove the investors mindset positively while hope resisted and encouraged investors towards investing. Moreover, inflation numbers continued to slide downwards during the month of April, which was a sign of economic improvement. In addition, political forces were motivated to support operation against Taliban while security forces continued the operations in the Swat region. The 100 index gained 20.68 points in the opening and maintained the positive stance till the closing at 7,296.90 points, up 173.98 points. Trading activity was much improved as compared to the last trading session. Ready market volume stood up to 124.619 million shares on Tuesday as compared to last trading sessions 70.948 million shares on Monday. Total trading value of the market also increased to Rs5.641 billion against Rs3.298 billion of last session. Market capitalization climbed up to Rs 2.171 trillion against Rs 2.121 trillion of last trading day, showing an increase of Rs50 billion in just one day. Out of 323 companies at the Karachi stock market, 232 gained value, 76 lost while only 15 remained unchanged. Sentiment boosters were although group specific stocks, decent recovery by KSE-100 index was due to accumulation in early hours invited follow up support in main board stocks of almost all the sectors, leading from the front was the Banking sector. Lucky Cement, for the second consecutive day, was the volume leader with the trading of 8.537 million shares. Other noted shares include National Bank with 6.110m shares, Jahangir Siddiqui 6.080m shares, Pak Reinsurance 5.719m shares, DGKC 5.439m shares, Pervez Ahmed 5.266m shares, MCB Bank 4.641m shares, Pak PTA 4.504m shares, Bank Al-Falah 4.168m shares, OGDC 3.606m shares namely. Leading gainers include Siemens Pakistan (SPOT), up by Rs36.75/share and closed at Rs927.75, Attock Petroleum added Rs14.42/share and its value was increased to Rs302.82, Shell Pakistan gained Rs9.08/share and closed at Rs215.08, Hinopak Motor up by Rs7.44/share and closed at Rs156.30, Mari Gas Company added Rs7.10/share and closed at Rs149.20, Attock Refinery gained Rs6.02/share and closed at Rs136.11. Conversely, Wyeth Pakistan lost Rs33.18/share with the trading of only 20 shares on Tuesday, Colgate Palm down by Rs2.94/share and closed at Rs299.06, Quetta Textile lost Rs2.71 and its value was decreased to Rs51.52, Service Industries lost Rs1.72/share, closing at Rs112.28, Shaheen Insurance lost Rs1.58/share and closed at Rs34, Royal Bank Limited also lost Rs1.43/share and closed at Rs27.21.

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