Foreign portfolio investment at Karachi Stock Exchange and upgradation of Pakistan’s credit rating by international agencies pushed the benchmark KSE-100 Index beyond the psychological barrier of 9000 level for the first time in the last nine months. The trade began this week at the stock market with positive momentum which gained further strength towards the end of the week. The major Index closed this week with a huge gain of 462 points at 9003. The discovery of new oil reserves in the country and investment by foreigners fueled major investment in energy and banking stocks. The average volume stood at 240 million shares this week. KSE-30 Index surged by 464 points to finish the week at 8651.

Foreign players made a net investment of $45.285 million at the Karachi Stock exchange in just two sessions (Monday and Tuesday), according to the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Ltd. Only on Tuesday, offshore investors invested $21.3 million (gross buy of $24.9 million and gross sell of $3.6 million). Moreover, total investment made by foreign players on Monday dramatically inched up to $23.99m (gross buy of $26.5m and gross sell of $2.5m). This foreign interest in the local stock market has changed the market’s direction and index is travelling towards sky while benchmark gained over 450 points in last three sessions. Most of the market experts are of the view that the current foreign interest in the equity market is due to the availability of attractive low-priced stocks. Shahid Ali at HMFS expressed that, “it would be unfair to say that Monday’s and Tuesday’s bullish momentum can be attributed to foreign investors who invested around $24 million only on Tuesday. We need to gi...

Foreign investors have invested $ 59.324 million in the stock market during August 2009, SBP report said here Saturday. According to a daily position of SBP’s Special Convertible Rupee Account (SCRA), the inflow of foreign investment was $ 93.905 till August 28, 2009 while the outflow was $ 34.581 million. Major investment came from USA and UK, followed by Luxembourg and Hong Kong. On August 28, 2009, the net inflow was $ 5.999 million, as inflow was $ 6.987 million while out flow stood at $ 0.988 million. Meanwhile, the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) has extended the suspension period of eight companies for another 60 days for not removing the cause of suspension. According to KSE, the action has been taken to protect the interest of trade and public. They are Prudential Investment Bank Ltd, Schon Modaraba, Harum Textile Mills, Southern Networks Ltd, Carvan East Fabrics, Baig Spinning Mills Ltd, Tri Star Shipping Lines and National Fibre Ltd. The KSE management will remove the suspensi...

The Karachi stock market faced intense buying on the last trading day of the week Friday due to foreign investment in oil and bank sectors. Buying was also supported by local investment in blue chips like bank, oil and cement sectors on account of good result announcements. The main trigger for the market was Standard and Poor’s (S&P) revision of Pakistan’s credit ratings to ‘B-’, which attracted interest from foreigners who remained the net buyers of shares worth $23.8 million. The Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) 100-share index increased by 226.06 points or 2.72 percent to close at 8,541.22 points as compared to previous session’s 8,315.16 points. The KSE 30-share index closed at 9,187.48 points with a gain of 255.64 points. The KMI 30 index closed at 12,855.50 points with a surge of 304.45 points. Analysts said that despite negative news in terms of failure to reach an agreement on margin financing and surge in all T-bills yields, an overall positive mood was witnessed at the marke...

Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) has asked its members, investors and clients to submit claims arising out of transactions made against its three expelled members Eastern Capital Limited, ClikTrade Limited and Capital One Equities Limited. It may be noted that these three brokers were expelled by KSE for not resolving investors’ complaints after the Security and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) had suspended the registration for not resolving investors complaints. KSE said that claims alongwith supportive evidence could be directly submitted to CSIR Department of KSE. Claims against Capital One Equities can be despatched to Post Box No 5550 of Karachi City GPO with postal code of 74000 before September 25, 2009. Similarly, claims against Eastern Capital can be despatched to Post Box No 5551 of Karachi City GPO and claim against Cliktrade can be sent to Post Box No 5552 of Karachi City GPO with postal code of 74000 before September 25, 2009.

Hectic buying by investors pushed the benchmark KSE-100 Index at the local capital market by 134 points to 8108. The share market opened upbeat and remained positive throughout the two sessions on the weekend as investors took fresh positions in telecom, communication, oil & gas and cement sectors. The reports regarding approval of draft of CFS financing by the market affairs committee also kept circulating the market while big brokerage houses and foreign investors remained active in the market. New margin eligibility list: Meanwhile, the Karachi Stock Exchange has revised the list of margin eligible securities for ready market on the basis of eligibility criteria approved by the Security and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), effective from September 21, 2009. According to a KSE notice, the new list included 40 scrips which would be acceptable as collateral against exposure margins and market-to-market losses. KSE has asked its members to replace those shares with the Exchan...

The Karachi stock market witnessed a bullish trading session Tuesday as Moody’s investor service revised the ratings of NBP, HBL, UBL, MCB and Pakistan’s sovereign debt to stable, which boosted investor confidence and they went for buying activities. The Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) 100-share index gained 62.55 points or 0.79 percent to close at 7,995.10 points as compared to the previous session’s 7,932.55 points. The KSE 30-share index closed at 8,474.25 points with an increase of 65.32 points. The KMI 30 index closed at 11,873.31 points with a surge of 63.07 points. Analysts said the market remained buoyant since the start of the trading activities the trend continued till the closing. Cement and bank stocks remained in the limelight during the session. The market turnover went down by 22.55 percent and traded 106.86 million shares as compared with previous session’s 137.99 million shares. The overall market capitalisation was up by 0.68 percent to close at Rs 2.354 trillion as agai...