RECORDER REPORT
KARACHI: The Karachi share market remained southward amid continued selling across-the-board on the back of what analysts said political uncertainty weighing on investor sentiment.
The risk-averse equity investors seemed ignoring positives like the Asian Development Bank’s favorable 4.2 percent growth projections for Pakistan and improving sales data in oil, cement, auto and fertilizer sectors.
The KSE-100 index lost 224.22 points or 0.721 percent to close at three-month low of 31,086.51 points from the previous 31,310.73.
Shrank by 5.7 percent during last seven trading sessions, the benchmark index slumped by 10.95 percent from its February 3 peak.
The session’s high and low stood at 31,407.40 and 31,043.98 points, respectively.
Trading volumes plunged to what Topline analyst Samar Iqbal noticed six-month low of 99.2 million shares from 128.3 million of the last session. The traded value also landed in red zone at Rs 6.1 billion compared to Tuesday’s Rs 8.6 billion.
Overall, 330 scrips traded of which 70 went up, 231 lost their worth while 29 stayed unchanged. Foreign portfolio investment witnessed a negative trend with the day’s net selling accumulating to $ 1.07 million. Market capitalisation also decreased to Rs 6.924 trillion from Rs 6.971 trillion.
Pak Elektron, minus Rs 2.26, led the volume by counting 9 million of its listed stocks traded.
Other best performers were Maple Leaf Cement 6.4 million, K-Electric 5.4 million, Engro Corporation 4.48 million, Jahangir Siddiqui Company 4.44 million, Bank of Punjab 4.1 million, Fauji Cement 4.0 million, National Bank 3.5 million, PIA 3.1 million and Pakistan International Bulk Terminal 2.9 million shares.
The futures trade also fell to 51 million contracts compared to 58 million a day earlier.
Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corp attributed the day’s fall to political uncertainty that adversely impacted the investor sentiment.
To Mehanti uncertainty over the global commodity prices and foreign selling in emerging markets were the day’s catalysts.
Terming the session as volatile, Arhum Ghous of JS Global said the current foreign selling spree kept shattering the investor confidence.
“Rollover of futures contract also impacted the overall sentiment,” viewed Samar Iqbal of Topline Securities.
She said investors were concerned on continuous selling by offshore investors. “That is why no aggressive buying is coming at these levels despite the recent fall in interest rates.”
While cement sector failed to benefit from the 50bps rate cut, the textile sector remained under pressure due to 2.9 percent month-on-month fall in textile exports in February.
Also, the discount rate cut dampened banking returns, evident by a run on most banking stocks through the day’s trade.
A further fall in Brent oil saw its effect on the oil and gas sector as almost all oil and gas scrips ended negative.
