Pakistan's KSE achieves 10,400-mark

Bulls stretched rally to fourth consecutive trading session at Pakistan's Karachi Stock Exchange ( KSE) on Wednesday as the main index ended the day above the psychologically important level of 10,400 while market volumes also continued to show positive growth.

The benchmark KSE 100-Index increased by 0.48 percent or 49.47 points to close at 10,436.29 levels, KSE 30-Index surged by 0.55 percent or 57.17 points to end at 10,439.91, and KSE All Share Index moved up by 0.45 percent or 32.92 points to finish the day at 7,290.92 levels.

It was a thorough uphill drive at the Exchange on Wednesday as the main index continued gaining value all day long. After a positive start, bulls strengthened their stay at the KSE with local investors finally joining the foreign investors for a buying spree. The spree helped the main index to surge above the 10,400- mark and after some range bound activities at the halfway stage, the key index once again regained strength to achieve the intraday high of 10,467.06 before closing just a shade lower.

Analysts informed Xinhua here that market is getting overweight with a continuous bullish trend but favorable corporate results are weighing big on the trading proceedings which might push the main index towards the 10,500-mark towards the weekend.

They further stated that the Karachi Stock Exchange authorities have finalized their proposals with respect to margin trading.

"Members of Karachi Stock Exchange's board of directors have agreed in principle to forward a concept paper on margin trading- produced by an independent committee and established by the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP)", they stated.

Good thing for the market is that it has started to record better volume numbers which clearly indicates that local investors are now taking interest in the trading activities, they said.

However, there was another school of thought that pleaded a profit-booking course ahead of the weekend. They said that the investors now should look to take profits on these levels ahead of the weekend so that they have enough money in their pocket to take fresh positions in the market in the next week.

Market continued to record improvement in volume numbers as Wednesday saw a trading of 102.554 million shares, which is 30.581 million shares more when compared with Tuesday's turnover of 71. 973 million shares.

Lotte Pakistan PTA Limited emerged as the top traded scrip of the day with trading of 9.970 million shares, followed by Bank Al- Falah Limited, Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited, WorldCall Telecom, and Hub Power Company Limited with turnovers of 8.255 million, 6.061 million, 5.522 million, and 4.125 million shares respectively.

In broader market, a total of 406 issues traded hands during the course of the day where bullish numbers edged out bearish ones with a ratio of 220 to 162 while prices of 24 other issues stayed unchanged.

Colgate Palmolive was the major price gainer of the day with 31. 85-rupee (37 U.S. cents) jump to close at 683 rupees (7.98 U.S. dollars)while on the other hand Wyeth Pakistan Limited led the losing numbers with 32-rupee (37 U.S. cents) decline to end at 961 rupees (11.23 U.S. dollars).

Source: Xinhua