12,000pts at long last

100-Index breaks big barrier

Nawaz Ali

KARACHI: Berserk bulls Thursday catapulted Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) above 12,000 points — the major psychological level– after around two and a half years. The benchmark KSE 100-Index gained 145 points -1.22 per cent– to close at 12,031 points closing above 12,000 levels for the first time after July 03, 2008.

KSE 30-Index jumped by 141 points -1.24 per cent– to hit 11,588 points and KSE All Share Index jumped 98 points -1.19 per cent– to reach 8,362 points.
It was the buying in oil and banking stocks spurred by expectations of better corporate results and higher international oil prices that led the main index achieve this feat.
“Buying spree was seen across the board with focus on banking sector and Lotpta as investors are expecting healthy earnings and better payouts”, said Samar Iqbal, equity dealer at Topline Securities.
Bulls were there since the opening bells as market started the session with 23 plus points, gains then kept on the increasing as investors mainly foreigners took positions primarily in oil and banking stocks over hopes of some better than expected December-ending corporate results while investors also hailed the election of new directors of the exchange by going bullish.
Further rising international oil prices at around $91 a barrel and rumours of expected discovery in Tal block too triggered buying activities in oil stocks. Therefore index crossed the psychological barrier of 12,000 points and at about 2:25 PST touched an intraday high of 12,048 points (+ve 162 points) and finally closed about it.
Foreign investors remained on the buying side where according to NCCPL there was a net foreign buying of $5 million on Thursday. On the local side; banks did a stock-buying of $9.01 million while individual investors, mutual funds, companies and NBFCs net-sold shares worth $5.93, $3.12, $3.1, and $1.1 million respectively.
Volumes too remained impressive throughout the day as 140 million shares traded in the overall market which is 40.3 million shares more as compared to a turnover of 99.7 million a day earlier.
Lotte Pakistan stood as the volume leader with 17.28 million shares followed by National Bank with 11.19 million shares and United Bank with 7.39 million shares. Out of total 400 active issues; 234 advanced and 146 declined while 20 issues held status quo.