KARACHI: The Karachi Stocks Exchange Monday remained under bearish trend over the continuous pressure on government after the parliament decision on Yemen crisis.
Oil and banks remained under pressure as investors preferred to trim their portfolios. The KSE-100 index closed 102.48 points down at 32,248.45 points, with volumes of 263m shares worth of Rs.14.3b/ $143m, better than month-to-date average volume of 242m shares (Rs.13.3b/ $133m). Refinery stocks rallied with ATRL up 4.5pc and NRL up 1.8pc after better than expected March results. POL also increased by 0.87pc with 1.2m shares (Rs.438m/ $4.4m) after March earnings announcement. In contrast to the entire cement sector, MLCF kept on increasing amid institutional support as accumulation is seen in anticipation of better earnings for March quarter. Maple Leaf with 19m shares trading went up 4.8pc.
Auto stocks rallied after record car sales numbers for the month of March issued last week. HCAR gained 5pc while PSMC was up 0.66pc, observed Samar Iqbal at Topline brokerage. Dismal cement sales data for March’15, huge local Institutional pledge for HBL offer for sale by Govt and profit-taking in selected stocks across the board played a catalyst role in bearish activity at KSE amid support in auto stocks on strong sales data and likely Govt pledge to reconsider new policy, said the investment analysts.
In Oil & Gas sector, ATRL closed on its upper circuit due to the surprising quarterly result (EPS: Rs14.30) beating the market expectations. POL spiked up 0.9pc as it posted its quarterly EPS at Rs8.54. Bullish sentiment was recorded in the auto sector on the back of MoM overwhelming sales number as HCAR closed up 5pc. Profit taking was witnessed in the cement sector as FCCL, LUCK and CHCC closed down 0.9pc, 1.5pc and 2.0pc respectively, observed analyst Arhum Ghous at JS Global.
