Second straight day of gains for Karachi bourse

Equities at Pakistan's Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) recorded bullish trading activities for second straight day on Wednesday as local institutional investors continued cherry picking in leading stocks but market volumes slimmed remarkably. The benchmark gained by 0.95 percent or 209.25 points to close at 22,189.67 points on Wednesday as against 21,980.42 points recorded on Tuesday. The KSE All Share Index increased by 0.82 percent or 131.11 points to end at 16,067.02 points, the KSE 30-Index surged by 1.05 percent or 175.87 points to conclude at 16,852.31 points, whereas the KMI 30-Index bolstered by 1.15 percent or 428.89 points to finish the day at 37,868.77 points. The Karachi Stock Exchange began the day on a bullish note and despite of some early profit-taking the main index continued getting institutional support which helped it to keep growing all day long where at one stage it hit the intraday highest level of 22,290.18 before closing below the psychological 22,200 levels. While local individual investors remained sidelined, it was institutional support which was visible in stocks like Engro Corporation, TRG Pakistan, National Bank of Pakistan, Pakistan Petroleum Limited, Dera Ghazi Khan Cement, Bank Al-Falah Limited, and Karachi Electric Supply Company. Moreover, Pakistan State Oil, Oil and Gas Development Company and WorldCall Telecom also chipped into the bullish gains of the Karachi bourse. The market volumes declined by 63.583 million shares to 133.669 million shares, the market capitalization improved by 41.936 billion rupees (399.398 million U.S. dollars) to 5.258 trillion rupees (50.084 billion U.S. dollars), whereas the KSE trading value plunged by 1.258 billion rupees (11.988 million U.S. dollars) to 6.569 billion rupees (62.567 million U.S. dollars) on Wednesday. As per the figures released by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited (NCCPL), the foreign investors came up with net buying of 340.181 million rupees (3.239 million U.S. dollars) on Tuesday. In broader market, a total of 338 companies changed hands during the course of trading on Wednesday where prices of 185 issues advanced, 130 declined, whereas values of 23 other scrips stayed unchanged at previous day's levels. Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited was the top traded company of the day with volume of 7.82 million shares, followed by Telecard Limited and Bank of Punjab with turnovers of 7.382 million shares and 7.119 million shares, respectively. Wyeth Pakistan Limited was the top price gainer of the day with increment of 143.75 rupees (1.36 U.S. dollars) to close at 4,653. 75 rupees (44.32 U.S. dollars) while on the other hand Shezan International led the major price shedders with decrement of 33 rupees (31.42 US cents) a share to finish the day at 632 rupees (6.01 US dollars).