Pakistan equities ended almost unchanged on first trading day after Ashura holidays with volatile trading keeping investors guessing on market direction.
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The bench mark KSE 100 index gained only 8 points to settle at another all time high level of 41412.04 points. The volatility caused the index to hit intra day all time high of 41629.32 mark.
Stocks opened positive with benchmark KSE100 testing 41,400 with Autos, Indus Motors and Pakistan Suzuki and Oil stocks leading; former on renewed investors interest after upgrade by a broker and latter tracking global crude with reports of institutional buying doing rounds, said report by Elixir Securities adding that “early excitement was countered by profit taking that wiped all the gains with political noise the likely culprit as investors see anxiety to increase as we get closer to month-end protests by Imran Khan led PTI that demands inquiry against PM on allegations raised by Panama papers”.
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Trade remained higher amid gains from CPEC projects in the banking, steel and cement sectors. Weak global equities invited late session pressure. Institutional support in oil, cement and auto stocks after visit of US delegation at PSX played a catalyst role in positive close, said senior analyst Ahsan Mehnti. With holidays over, activity in wider market improved significantly as volumes and turnover on PSX All shares were up by 25 percent as compared to previous trading session; small and mid cap stocks driven by retail activity again topping the volumes table. Volumes increase to 440 million shares against 363 million shares traded during previous session.
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The trading value of shares also increase to Rs 14 billion from Rs 11.9 billion. Bank of Punjab remained the volume leader with 64 million shares traded followed by Aisha Steel Mill (18 million), Askari Bank (17 million), NIB Bank (13 million), SNGPL (12 million), Pace Pak (11 million), and Lotte Chemical (10 million). Shares of 458 companies changed hand on Thursday out of which the value of 211 companies’ shares appreciated while those of 233 registered decline. However, 14 companies remained unchanged. With the onset of result season Pakistan Telecommunication Company announced 3Q2016 consolidated profit after tax of Rs 876 million (EPS Rs 0.17) as compared to a loss of Rs 0.07 per share for 3Q2015.
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PTC’s consolidated revenues improved by 2 percent YoY to Rs 29.8 billion in the outgoing quarter. “This can be attributed to improving Ufone’s revenue, PTC’s wholly owned subsidiary, however PTC’s core business segments remained flat, we believe. As of August 2016, Evolution Data Optimized (EvDO) subscribers fell 5 percent YoY to 1.03 million while those of Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) remained almost flat at 1.4 million subscribers. The result was in-line with our expectations”, said report by Topline Securities. Market players expect volatile market with caution advised in penny and speculative plays. “Politics in our view will gain focus as days progress however few quarterly earnings during 3rd week may shift attention to fundamentals in the short term”, according to Elixir Securities.
