Sale of Pakistan Telecom Shares boosts KSE by 264 points
By Attaul Mohsin Syed - Pakistan Times Staff Correspondent

KARACHI: The PTCL privatisation has led the market towards the positive zone. Investors rode on a bandwagon and the blue chips were in the driving seat.

Equities on Monday jumped up by 264.31 points, leading the KSE-100 index to 7663.04. The investors said that the index may even cross 8000 marks today Tuesday.

The market remained positive throughout Monday.

The bid price of $1.96 or Rs 117 per share offered by the UAE telecom giant Etisalat which was way above expectation and this boosted the sentiments of the investors, and across the board healthy activity was witnessed.

After the smooth and successful privatisation of the PTCL, the bullish trend is considered to be the destiny of the market for future. After the privatisation of PTCL now, PSO and PPL are next in line.

It is expected that the privatisation of PSO and PPL would also take place smoothly, and this possibility reinforced the positive sentiment, further helping the market to adopt bullish trend.

Hasnain Imam of Arif Habib Securities said that the market is in the positive zone. More than expected bid price of $1.96 per share for the PTCL offered by the UAE telecom giant Etisalat has boosted the market in general and the privatisation-related scrips in particular.

Perspective

The high bid price and a successful completion of the long-awaited privatisation process of the PTCL bode quite well for other privatisation-related scrips chiefly PSO, PPL, OGDCL and the twin Sui companies.

In addition, reported increase in cement prices all over the country at both the company and retail levels offered good investment opportunity in the cement scrips. Overall positive development on the privatisation front was the main factor for the forward march of the index.

Atif Malik of Jahangir Siddiqui and Company said that positive sentiments prevailed in the market as PTCL privatisation was conducted smoothly, the bid price was much higher than the government’s expectation which had a positive impact on the market.

All major scrips like NBP, PPL, PSO, OGDC, PTCL faced upper circuits. The rise in Cement prices also contributed in the market.

Zafar Moti said that it was a privatisation rally led the market, PTCL privatisation of 26% share with management to Etisalat energised the investors and healthy buying was witnessed and there was a positive impact imposed over the other companies to be privatised soon.

LSE

And a report from Lahore says that the stock market celebrated the successful privatization of 26% shares of Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) on Monday as LSE-25 index rose by 160.03 points to close at 3897.23 from weekend's 3737.20.

"The upsurge is mainly due to the successful sell-out of PTCL to UAE's Etisalat telecom company; It will have a long- term effect on country's stock market," hoped Ahmad Nabeel of Invest and Finance Securities said.

However, total turnover declined to 50.989 million shares against Friday's 52.896 million, showing a decrease of 1.907
million.

Of a total of 95 active scrips traded on Monday, 27 posted gains, only 10 shed value while a majority of 58 equities remained unchanged.

Pakistan State Oil Company Limited, Oil and Gas Development Company Limited and Pakistan Petroleum Limited were the major gainers of the day while Fauji Fertilizer Company, Muslim Commercial Bank Limited and WorldCALL Communications figured high on the negative column.

Pakistan Telecommunications continued to hold the slot of volume leader of the day, followed by National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) and Oil and Gas Development Company Limited.●