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Reaching new heights
END May review
By M. Bilal Aftab
It was all gains at the stock market during May 2003. Despite a few technical corrections during the month, the overall mood at the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) remained highly bullish in anticipation of improved corporate earnings across the board. The News-Prime Bank Composite Index of VIS maintained its upward movement with a great momentum during the month. The Index closed at 5,485.7 points on May 30, 2003 (the highest recording for the month too) with an unprecedented month-over increase of 728.5 points or a whooping 15.3 per cent over its end-April close of 4,757.2 points.Out of 20 days of trading in May 2003, the index closed in the positive column on 16 occasions whereas it lost value at the end of only four days.
The two major components of the Composite Index, Financial and Industrial indices, also remained highly bullish with the former superceding the later.
Financial index closed at 3,555.4 points and gained 486.1 points or 15.8 per cent over its end-April's close of 3,069.3 points. On the other hand, Industrial Index by closing at 6,328.9 points tremendously increased by 825.8 points which was 15.0 per cent higher than 5503.1 points recorded at the end of April.
An overall bullish mood that persisted throughout the month can also be gauged from the fact that all the 36 sector indices of the News-Prime Bank Index System posted gains during May 2003.
The index of 'Brokerage Firms' sector remained topper in the financial segment by gaining a substantial 29.7 per cent. On the industrial side, it was the index of 'Glass & Ceramics' sector that gained the most in the group increasing by 35.6 per cent during the month.
Other Market-Indicators:
The bullish trend during May was a broad-based one, therefore, the market capitalization based index KSE-100 only managed to inch up by about 7 per cent. KSE-100, which is a basket of only 100 out of 705 stocks, closed at 3,099.0 points on May 30, 2003 which was 196.6 points or 6.8 per cent higher than 2,902.4 points the index marked at the end of April. During the month, the KSE-100 recorded its all-time high of 3,126.6 points on the 27th of May.
Trading at the Lahore and Islamabad Stock Exchanges also remained dominated by the bulls. At the end of May 2003, LSE-25 of Lahore Stock Exchange closed at 1,864.0 points prospered by 123.8 points or 7.1 per cent over its end-April closing of 1,740.2 points. Similarly, ISE-Network Index of Islamabad, which is also a price-based composite index developed by VIS, ascended by 802.1 points or 12.2 per cent and closed at 6,600.1 points.
There was a humble increase in the average daily turnover at the KSE during May 2003. On an average, 222 million shares changed hands on each of the 20 days of trading during May as against an average turnover of 201 million shares estimated for 20 days of April 2003.
News-Prime Bank Indexes
Major Indexes
Major Index Closing as on Change over
May 30, 2003 April 30, 2003
Composite 5,485.7 728.5 (15.3%)
Financials 3,555.4 486.1 (15.8%)
Industrials 6,328.9 825.8 (15.0%)
Base: 10,000 December 29, 1994
Top Gaining Sector Indexes
Sector Index Closing as on Change over
May 30, 2003 April 30, 2003
Glass & Ceramics 587.6 35.6%
Brokerage Firms 456.2 29.7%
Apparels 270.1 29.6%
Textile Composite 603.4 26.8%
Modarabas 374.3 26.7%
Base: 1,000 December 29, 1994
Top Losing Sectors
Sector Index Closing as on Change over
May 30, 2003 April 30, 2003
None
Base: 1,000 December 29, 1994