STOCK MARKET UPDATE: 18.03.2013

STOCKS

Karachi Stocks Down  75.86 Points:
KARACHI, Mar 15: At the close of trading, the KSE-100 index was at 17,664.83, down-75.86 points.

(Today Market is 248.96 Down@ 10.54 am)

March 15, 2013

 5 TOP GAINERS  &  LOOSERS:

Philip Morris	Rs 11.07	Unilever Pak	Rs (55.25)
Exide Pak	Rs 8.98	Bata Pak	Rs (20.00)
PICT	Rs 8.85	Dreamworld	Rs (18.12)
Millat Tractors	Rs 6.71	Colgate Palmolive	Rs (15.56)
Attock Petroleum	Rs 3.33	Indus Dyeing	Rs (5.60)

Pakistani stocks close lower, rupee weakens

KARACHI: Pakistan’s stock market closed lower on Friday, dragged down by sales of Engro Corporation, Muslim Commercial Bank and Pakistan Oilfields Ltd, dealers said.
Karachi Stock Exchange’s (KSE) benchmark 100-share index ended 0.43 per cent, or 75.86 points, lower at 17,664.83 points.
Engro Corporation fell 3.49 percent to 119.06 rupees, while Muslim Commercial Bank Ltd was down 3.05 per cent to 189 rupees.
In the currency market, the rupee ended weaker at 98.03/98.09 against the dollar. compared to Thursday’s close of 97.86/97.92.
Overnight rates in the money market rose to 9 per cent from Thursday’s close of 7 per cent.

Bearish spell sets in on stock market

KARACHI, March 15: Friday marked yet another dull day at the stock market, where the activity in terms of shares traded dipped further to 115 million shares compared to 128 million shares traded the day earlier.
The KSE-100 index lost 75.86 points to settle at 17,664.83 points at the close of second session on Friday. The institutional investors kept sideline over the suspense over the interim government set-up.
The activity was generated mainly by punters and day traders in second and third tier stocks, which accounted for majority of the high volume stocks. Foreign investors also disposed of equity worth $92 million on Friday.
Among local participants, companies were net sellers of $1.11 million worth shares and individual also sold stocks valued at $0.16m. On the buy side were banks with $0.13m and mutual funds picking up shares of $0.98m.
Dealers said that in the absence of news flow that could impact equity markets, much of the day’s activity revolved around the Engro Corporation stock, as discussions centered on decision in respect of gas supply to its plant.
Khurram Schehzad at Arif Habib Research observed that the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) had rejected the plan to provide gas to Engro at concessionary rate. The ECC had however, approved permanent diversion of gas from Mari to Sui Northern Gas Pipelines for Engro’s new plant, but rejected the concessionary rate of 70 cent.
Manager Equity Sales, Samar Iqbal said that the selling in shares of Engro Corp, MCB Bank and POL caused benchmark index to fall. Confusion on Engro Corp gas pricing hit the investor confidence.
Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corporation commented that the stocks closed lower amid thin trade. Consolidation continued in blue-chip stocks post earnings announcements.
Activity remained mainly in second and third tier stocks and the index moved in narrow range during the trading session on Friday. Also easing of circular debt concerns in energy sector after NEPRA approval for raise in power tariff and economic recovery on fall in trade deficit by 10 per cent between July-Feb 2013 impacted the sentiments.The market capitalisation based KSE-30 index plunged by 115.74 points to 14,172.17 points. The trading value of stocks on Friday improved to Rs3.815 billion, from Rs3.349 billion the previous day.
Market capitalisation declined by Rs16 billion to Rs4.364 trillion, from Rs4.379 trillion on Thursday. Among the 318 stocks which were traded at the market, 145 were gainers; 152 losers and 21 remained unchanged.
The biggest declines were noted in UniLever Pak, which dipped by Rs55.25 to Rs10,644.75, followed by Bata (Pakistan) down by Rs20 to Rs1,260. The major gainers were Phillip Morris up by Rs11.07 to Rs232.51 and Exide (Pak) lower by Rs8.98 to Rs340.
On the top-10 active list, Lotte PakPTA recorded the highest volume of 13m shares, with the stock up by 32 paisa to Rs7.74.
PTCL followed with 10m shares higher by 28 paisa to Rs20.49, Engro Corporation slipped by Rs3.75 to Rs119.61 on 9m shares and Jahangir Siddiqui Co rose by 28 paisa to Rs14.25 on 7m shares.
PIA shed 19 paisa to Rs6.62 on 5m shares, Telecard Limited, another telecom scrip, also slid by 13 paisa to Rs6.20 on 5m shares, Dewan Motors edged higher by 13 paisa to Rs3.05 on 4m shares, D.G. Khan Cement was up by 12 paisa to Rs63.31 on 4m shares.
Lafarge Pakistan, the cement company slipped by one paisa to Rs6.15 on 4m shares, while another active cement stock, the Fauji Cement represented the 10th highest volume at 3m shares, though the stock price closed unchanged at Rs8.

KSE gained 18pc in 5 years

KARACHI, March 15: The stock market has yielded return of 18 per cent in the last five years, which analysts say marks one of the worst periods in the history of the Karachi Stock Exchange.
“Equity returns remained depressed, market depth was weak while companies were not able to raise funds aggressively for expansion in the last five years,” writes Mohammad Sohail, CEO at Topline Securities in a short report released on Friday.
When the incumbent government assumed office on March 17, 2008, the benchmark KSE-100 index stood at 15,043 points.
Five years on, the index closed on Friday at 17,741 points, representing return of just 18 per cent. The challenging global environment and security conditions together with the economic slowdown affected the local equity markets in the five-year term.
Yet, if the 18 per cent return looks unimpressive, the return has been worst in dollar terms. Investors in Pakistani equities actually lost 24 per cent in the five year period. Compared to that the Mumbai bourse lost one per cent in the five yeas, while splendid gains were provided by Indonesia at 100 per cent; Thailand 110 per cent and Philippines 146 per cent.
But back to the KSE, which represented market capitalisation at Rs4.6 trillion or $73 billion in March 2008 accounting for 46 per cent of the country’s GDP. On Friday, the market cap stood at Rs4.3 trillion. With the erosion in the value of the rupee, it converted to $45 billion or 19pc of GDP, which is a strong evidence of the market having lagged behind the overall economy.
The country’s main bourse managed to perform well in 2012, which is attributed to sharp fall in interest rates. All of that suggests that the average annual return from equities in the last five years were scarcely impressive compared to average inflation of 12 per cent.
“Someone who may have invested in T-Bill or NSS (National Saving Schemes) in March 2008 would be richer than those who invested in equities”, Sohail points out.
Corporates avoided the stock market as a vehicle for mobilisation of funds, since only five Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) were made during the five-year period. The number fades in the face of average annual equity offerings of 30 in 1990s and eight in 2000s.
Not only the IPOs of 5-years were lesser in number over the previous years, the sizes of public issues were also small and unimpressive. Average size of IPO was Rs390 million in the previous five years, which was considerably lower than average witnessed in 2000s.
Government offerings, in privatisation of part of big state-owned enterprise (SoEs), which had brought prosperity to the investors in the preceding years, were conspicuous by their absence in the five year term.

MOHAMMED SALEEM MANSOORI