Engro Corporation and Habib Bank Limited earnings disappointed the shareholders.

[Samsoul]

The Karachi share market rose by about half a percent on Wednesday on the back of renewed foreign interest in the blue-chip scrips on expectation of strong corporate results, although Engro Corporation and Habib Bank Limited earnings disappointed the shareholders.

“Result-based activity dominated the market sentiment with healthy volumes, which kept the KSE 100-index in the positive zone,” said Samar Iqbal, a dealer at the Topline Securities.

The KSE-100 Index gained 49.47 points, or 0.47 percent, to close at 10,436.29. The KSE-30 Index rose 60.15 points, or 0.58 percent, to close at 10,442.89.

The number of transactions increased to 63,235 from the previous trading session’s 46,031. Shares of 370 companies were traded, out of which 229 advanced, 120 declined and 21 companies remained unchanged.

Engro and HBL shares came under selling pressure because of their below expectation result announcements. However, mid-tier stocks attracted buyers.

Ahsan Mehanti, Director at Arif Habib Investments, said that the market remained buoyant as institutional buying continued in blue chip stocks of banking, energy, cement and oil sectors ahead of earning announcements.

“Investors remained optimistic throughout the trading session on renewed foreign interest in banks and energy scrips despite uncertainty in global stock markets and fall in international crude oil prices.”

Hasnain Asghar Ali, a dealer at Aziz Fida Husein, said that positive sentiment persisted at the local bourse with improved turnover in main board stocks.

“Besides, the sidelined corporate participants also became active, reflecting improvement in local confidence.”

Analysts said that six-month results of Engro Corporation disappointed the market as the earnings were below expectations. Buying interest in most other stocks, however, allowed the main index to remain in the green zone.

Concerns about the economy, especially the soon-to-be-announced monetary policy decision, had their impact on the market, which was mostly offset by the gains made on the back of leverage product approval.

Naureen Khan, an analyst at Elixir Securities, said that the market continued the upward movement with blue chip scrips leading the way.

The ready market volume rose to 102.554 million shares from 71.973 million a day earlier. Future market volume climbed to 3.766 million shares from 3.581 million in the last trading session.

LOTPTA was the volume leader with trade of 11.445 million shares. It gained 28 paisas to close at Rs8.66. It was followed by BAFL with trade of 8.514 million shares. It rose 65 paisas to end at Rs9.91. PTC was the third with trade of 6.250 million shares. It was up by 51 paisas to finish at Rs19.39.

[stylish_girl]

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