RECORDER REPORT
KARACHI: The Karachi shares market Monday shed 6.43 points or 0.02 percent to end almost flat at 33,723.53 points, weighed mainly by political situation.
The week’s first trading day saw bulls dominating the investor sentiment throughout the day except the last 30 minutes when the KSE-100 index nosedived to lose almost 300 points.
“Political noise gripped the trading activity after an Election Tribunal ordered re-polling on a Lahore NA seat,” said Ahsan Mehanti, a director at Arif Habib Corp.
Overall, the analysts believe, the market is consolidating post quarter end earning announcements.
In intraday trade, the benchmark index rallied by 290 points to hit 34,021.27 points.
“Bulls dominated… for most of the day, as the market took a nosedive in the last half hour,” said JS analyst Ahmed Saeed Khan.
Also, Mohammad Rizwan of Topline Securities said, investors trimmed their positions after “slightly-higher-than-expected,” 2.11 percent, Consumer Price Index (CPI) figures came for April.
Given easing inflationary pressures in the country, the equity investors are expecting the State Bank to further slash its monetary policy stance due to be unveiled later this month.
The trading turnover inched up to 206 million shares compared to 190 million of the previous session. The stocks traded valued Rs 14.88 billion against Rs 13.14 billion on Thursday last week.
Of the total 357 scrips traded, only 138 could end up positive, majority 205 depreciated while 14 stayed unchanged.
The market capital slightly fell to close at Rs 7.289 trillion from Rs 7.305 trillion a day earlier. Foreign portfolio investment landed in the green zone with a net buying of $ 564,410.
Byco Petroleum, down 7.7 percent to Rs 12.21, emerged the day’s volume leader with 20.26 million of its listed shares changing hands.
Other nine best performers were K-Electric 17 million, Fauji Cement 15 million, Engro fertilizer 14 million, Engro foods 7.9 million, Arif Habib Corp 7.7 million, Pak Elektron 7.6 million, Habib Bank 7.6 million, Faysal Bank 7.2 million and Jahangir Siddiqui Company 7.2 million shares.
The futures trade closed upward at 35.8 million contracts compared to 29 million of last session.
Mehanti also took notice of pre-budget uncertainty that, he said, played a catalytic role in the day’s bearish activity.
The risk-averse investors, analyst said, ignored positives like a favorable CPI data that is likely to “impact SBP policy rate announcements.”
The investors showed some interest in Pakistan Oilfields Limited (POL), up 1.5 percent, as the company declared to have discovered hydrocarbons in its Tal Block.
“On market rumours of impending successful testing of hydrocarbon reserves in Maramzai-3 and Makori-East 4, POL rallied… as cumulative positive earnings impact of the same is around Rs 9 per share,” said Khan of JS Research.
Reports on oversubscription of EFERT’s seven percent private placement made the fertilizer giant rally to grow by 1.6 percent.
