KARACHI: Stocks crawled higher on Wednesday with the KSE-100 index closing up 43.05 points (0.11 per cent) to 40,591.88.
Regardless of low valuations of stocks, investors looked for triggers amidst a fluid political situation.
The index rose to the intraday high by 193 points, but succumbed to profit-taking later and closed about flat after meandering between red and green throughout the session.
The significant feature of the day was the burst of activity in K-Electric. The trading in the stock churned out a massive volume of 77 million shares, which accounted for 49pc of the day’s entire turnover of 157m shares.
The interest of investors in the utility was sparked after a TV channel attributed a comment to the privatisation minister and Sindh governor pertaining to an imminent takeover of K-Electric by Shanghai Electric.
The price of K-Electric witnessed a 52-week low at Rs5.17, but surged 10pc by the end of trading.
While foreign funds disposed of stocks worth $2.91m, individuals’ zest for the K-Electric share was reflected in their net purchases amounting to $4.10m.
The volume was up 54pc from the previous day while the traded value rose 1.5pc to Rs5.3 billion.
The exploration and production sector inched slightly above the previous day’s level, with Pakistan Petroleum going up 0.46pc, Oil and Gas Development Company (OGDC) 0.57pc and Pakistan Oilfields 0.21pc.
According to Arif Habib Ltd, K-Electric contributed 31 points to the index, Dawood Hercules 28 points, Pakistan Tobacco 19 points, International Industries 13 points and OGDC 12 points.
Scrips that weighed the index down included Engro Corp, which took away 40 points, Hub Power 27 points, Habib Bank 26 points, MCB Bank 20 points and Honda Atlas Cars 13 points.
In terms of percentage, K-Electric was up 10.1pc while Pakistan Tobacco and International Industries hit their upper locks. Honda Atlas Cars, down 4.5pc, took a beating as its second-quarter earnings missed analysts’ expectations on the back of lower margins.
Published in Dawn, November 23rd, 2017
