RECORDER REPORT
KARACHI: Bears kept dominating the Karachi share market which shed another 407.54 points in Thursday’s trading.
The KSE-100 index slid to 30,678.97 from 31,086.51 points Wednesday. The intra-day high and low were recorded at 31,359.54 and 30,172.93 points, respectively.
The trading volumes, however, improved tremendously to 258.3 million shares compared to 99.2 million of the previous session. Foreign portfolio investors also set in positive territory and did a net buying of $ 0.758 million.
The stocks traded appreciated in value to Rs 12.6 billion against Rs 6.1 billion a day earlier. Overall, of the 357 scrips traded only 36 could increase. A majority, 307, depreciated while 14 ended unchanged. K-Electric, which dropped to Rs 6.89 per share, led the day’s volume by trading 33.9 million stakes.
Other best performers included Bank of Punjab 22.1 million, Jahangir Siddiqui Company 14.5 million, Pak Elektron 13.7 million, Maple Leaf Cement 11.7 million, Fauji Cement 10.8 million, Engro Fertiliser 9.3 million, Engro Corp 9.0 million, TRG Pakistan 8.0 million and PIA 7.7 million shares.
Trading on the futures market grew to 64.4 million contracts from 51 million.
“Another bearish session was witnessed at KSE ahead of quarter-end close with high trades amid investor panic on foreign selling,” viewed Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corp.
The investors, he said, ignored Moodys’ upgrade on Pakistan bond ratings to positive and major success in ongoing anti-insurgent military offensive. “Political uncertainty in Sindh impacted the sentiment,” the analyst said.
A late session interest in oil and fertilizer scrips after a sharp recovery in crude prices, commodities supported the index to close above session low.
Samar Iqbal of Topline Securities observed another session of panic selling at KSE where the index at one point plunged by three percent before settling at a three-month low.
Initially, she said, the benchmark index increased by 0.9 percent after Moody’s Investor Service revised outlook on Pakistan’s foreign currency government bond from ‘stable’ to ‘positive’.
“However, a global sell-off due to turmoil in Middle East added fuel to fire at a time when foreigners are net sellers and rollover of futures contracts is under way,” said the analyst.
There was speculation of aggressive selling by local funds which further dampened the market sentiment, she said.
Buying by local institutions in the latter half of the session helped recovery of leading cement and fertilizer stocks which declined sharply earlier.
