KSE-100 Index: Daily Overview – October 31

The KSE-100 index, after closing positively on Friday, October 28, gained 307 points on Monday, October 31 to close at 11,869 points, 161 more than where it started in October.

Volumes remained low throughout the last week, but crossed the 100 million mark in the first session of this week, primarily due to buying in blue chips across the board. OGDC closed on an upper-lock for the second session running and this can be attributed
to institutional buying, largely foreign.

As a matter of fact, 70% of OGDC’s free float is believed to be held by the foreign investor and thus volumes have remained on the lower side for the past few months. However, more than one million shares were traded today and Mr. Ali Nadeem, Manager of
Equity Sales at First National Equities, opined that this added to the positive sentiment of the market today.

Apart from this, encouraging results of FFC, PSO and ENGRO initiated a buying spree across the board, hinting that the next few sessions might be fruitful for investors. Nevertheless, the market has gained more the 550 points in two trading sessions and
thus there might be profit-taking when the market re-opens on Tuesday, November 1.

The fertiliser sector led the market yet again with ENGRO, FFC and Fatima Fertiliser closing at upper-lock. A common factor for this surge in price was the increase of urea prices by Rs. 400/bag. Furthermore, FFC announced earnings of Rs. 16.31 for the nine-month
period from January to September along with a cash pay-out of Rs. 5.50. It is worth noting that this year, to date, FFC has given cash dividend of Rs. 14.75 out of the Rs. 16.31 earnings, making it a substantial percentage.

ENGRO, on the contrary, announced earnings of Rs. 14.21 for the nine months along with a cash pay-out of Rs. 2 for the third quarter. Ali highlighted that the fertiliser sector is becoming a safe haven for investors and might attract a lot of investment
from abroad in the near future.

PSO announced earnings of Rs. 14.50, Rs. 3 more than what the market had expected and thus gained the maximum for the day.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=2226

Posted by Hammad Malik on Oct 31 2011. Filed under Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry