KARACHI (December 20 2002) : The second largest turnover was recorded in the history of the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) where PTCL, Hub Power and Sui Northern Gas dominated the proceedings and the index touched 105-month high level on Thursday after buying ignited from financial institutions and banks.
The KSE-100 index registered an unprecedented rise of 34.32 points, or 1.37 percent to 2,535.44 points.
The Thursday's level was highest since March 31, 1994 when the KSE-100 index was at 2,540 points.
The volume changed hands was the second largest in the history of the local bourses as on March 31, 2000, the turnover amounted to 536 million shares.
From the word 'go' the index was in the plus column and bulls presence was felt at the every sector covering fuel, energy, telecommunication, banks, fertiliser and chemicals sectors.
The entry of the financial institutions and the banks paved way for the retail investors who were also actively executing fresh deals in the choice scrips.
Shahnawaz Nadir of WE Securities, said the buying euphoria was not confined to selective blue chips, rather very much broad-based.
This was primarily a continuation of a bull-run that is being experienced for the last several days.
Another reason behind the surge in the market was the high volatility seen during the last few days, and also in Wednesday's session, when the KSE saw a low of -36 points.
Shahnawaz Nadir explained another positive factor was the renewed interest in the textile and fibre sectors, saying the announcement and dividend pay-out in Ibrahim Fibers was well received by the market as was seen in the form of increased interest in the sector.
The market advance was led by the blue chips-Hubco and PTCL. Hubco showed more erratic behaviour and movements while PTCL continued to rise in the plus column after becoming ex-dividend on Thursday.
Hasnain Asghar of Aziz Fidahusein, said healthy volumes depict growing interest from the local investors, adding the statistics of remittances and positive economic indicators will invite further funds thereby allowing the bulls to stay for a while.
With the year of major movers coming up buying is recommended in leading stocks of fertiliser, banking and power sector, he suggested.
Technically, the market is expected to stay above 2,500 immediate support stays at 2,540 and 2,525 while it in order to surge further needs to consolidate above 2,560.
Zubair Ellahi of KAB Securities said the all-time high market volumes and another record index closing exhibits the intensity of the current bull-run, mainly inspired by wild speculative upward swing in some of the index heavy weights.
The index is not far from all-time high record, which if broken, may revive interest in some of the old actives, he said.
Raheel Moosani of Moosani Securities, said stocks by the KSE annual report showed that the stock market fared better than the other investing avenues and relentlessly remaining the buoyed since June last, adding the overwhelming majority of investors took new positions and invest fresh funds that helped underpin the bulls rally.
Institutional and punters interest remained high in blue chips and sideboard stocks especially in PTCL, he said, adding Engro and Sui Northern Gas whereas PSO and ICI also remained positive and dragged fresh buying as jobbers and retailers join the bandwagon once the index started to climb high.
He said the market, however, still looks extremely overbought and technical correction is long over due.
Hubco, on a turnover of 138.376 million shares, recorded a decline of 15 paisa to Rs 33.25, PTCL denoted an increase of Rs 1.15 to Rs 24.25 on a business of 115.258 million shares, Sui Northern Gas posted a rise of Rs 1.10 to Rs 22.45 on trading of 73.819 million shares, PSO moved up to Rs 189.80 from Rs 188.45 on a volume of 29.31 million shares and Engro closed at Rs 79.70, ie higher by Rs 1.60 as around 20.840 million shares changed hands.
