Banks help Karachi stocks make slight gains

Karachi stocks on Wednesday witnessed a roller-coaster ride but managed to make modest gains as investors took fresh positions on healthy financial numbers in the banking sector, dealers said.
The KSE 100-share Index gained 33.57 points, or 0.10 percent, to close at 33,943.74 points.
The KSE 30-share Index shed 4.91 points, or 0.02 percent, to end at 20,330.96 points.
As many as 392 scrips were active; of which 159 advanced, 203 declined and 30 remained unchanged.
The ready market volumes stood at 139.145 million shares as compared to 170.273 million shares in the last trading session.
Analyst Ahmed Saeed Khan at JS Global said volatility continued in the market as the index juggled between negative 0.15 percent and positive 0.37 percent to finally close up 0.1 percent with low volumes.
“Positivity prevailed in the banking sector after HBL announced better than previous results with a 22 percent growth,” Khan said.
All the major scrips in the banking sector stayed majorly in the green zone, where the big fives remained positive throughout the day and closed marginally in the green zone.
The Habib Bank Limited (HBL) gained 2.24 percent, Allied Bank Limited 1.5 percent and United Bank Limited inched up 0.20 percent.
An analyst said the market may remain lacklustre today, the last working day of the week. The market will resume operation on Monday next week after Muhrram holidays.
“Lack of positive triggers is expected to keep the sentiment flattish,” said the analyst.
Analyst Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Commodities said falling US crude prices near to $45/barrel and uncertainty in the global equities and commodities hurt the sentiments.
“However, improving current account data for Jul-September and healthy quarterly results in the banking stocks supported the index,” Mehanti said.
The exploration and production sector remained depressed. All the major scrips in the sector closed negatively with the

exception of Hascol, which surged 2.37 percent.
Oil and Gas Development Company was down 0.80 percent, Pakistan Petroleum Limited shed 3.99 percent and Pakistan State Oil closed 0.38 percent down.
Companies, reflecting highest gains, included Rafhan Maize surging Rs440 to close at Rs9,340/share and Khyber Tobacco up Rs23.32 to end at Rs489.79/share.
Companies with highest losses included Island Textiles declining Rs45.84 to close at Rs871.03/share and Sanofi Aventis down Rs28.67 to end at Rs643.30/share.
Highest volumes were witnessed in Pak Electron with a turnover of 19.211 million shares.
The scrip was up Rs3.11 to close at Rs79.86/share. It was followed by Byco Petroleum with a turnover of 11.869 million shares. It shed Rs1.05 to end at Rs26.85. TRG was the third with a turnover of 8.233 million shares. It inched up 68 paisas to finish at Rs36.67/share.