ROUNDUP: KSE GAINS AS INVESTORS POUNCE ON BUYING OPPORTUNITY

ROUNDUP: KSE GAINS AS INVESTORS POUNCE ON BUYING OPPORTUNITY

ISLAMABAD, May 13 (Xinhua — Pakistan’s premier bourse Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) returned to bullish ways on Tuesday as market participants took advantage of the buying opportunity after recent losses as the key index regained the 28,400 points.

The benchmark KSE 100-Index gained 0.24 percent or 67.61 points to 28,411.49 points on Tuesday as against 28,343.88 points posted on Monday.

The KSE All Share Index swelled by 0.17 percent or 35.53 points to 21,182.23 points, the KSE 30-Index increased by 0.24 percent or 47.86 points to 19,789.66 points, whereas the KMI 30-Index surged by 0.32 percent or 145.59 points to 45,299.28 points.

During Tuesday’s trading session, the key index hit an intraday high of 28.486.71 points as against an intraday low of 28, 306.55 points.

Oil sector was in high demand Tuesday as Pakistan State Oil (1. 86 rupees per share) and Byco Petroleum (1 rupees per share) recorded increase in their share values.

Engro Fertilizer (0.23 rupees), Fauji Cement (0.18 rupees), and top banks like National Bank of Pakistan (0.64 rupees), Soneri Bank (0.58 rupees per share), Bank Al-Habib (0.99 rupees), and Faysal Bank (0.09 rupees) also ended in green zone.

Investors are setting their focus on the upcoming monetary policy statement scheduled for May 16 where market experts are expecting the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to continue stalemate in its key discount rate.

Market volumes improved by 33.256 million shares to 121.326 million shares, capitalization shot up by 12.592 billion rupees ( 125.929 million U.S. dollars) to 6.794 trillion rupees (67.944 billion U.S. dollars), whereas trading value augmented by 2.2 billion rupees (22.001 million U.S. dollars) to 6.107 billion rupees (61.079 million U.S. dollars).

Among 340 active scrips Tuesday, prices of 201 issues declined, 119 advanced, whereas values of 20 other companies stayed unchanged.

Soneri Bank Limited, Jahangir Siddiqui Company Limited, and Lafarge Pakistan XD were the top traded companies with turnovers of 10.102 million shares, 9.741 million shares, and 7.523 million shares, respectively.

Rafhan Maize XD was the top price gainer of the day with increment of 350 rupees (3.5 U.S. dollars) to 10,150 rupees (101.5 U.S. dollars) whereas Siemens Pakistan was the major price shedder of the day with decrement of 15.49 rupees (15.49 U.S. cents) to 1, 180.01 rupees (11.8 U.S. dollars).