Market watch: A bump in the upward trend

Benchmark KSE-100 index falls 181 points.

KARACHI:

The stock market on Monday fell mostly due to selling of banking sector and cement stocks.

The Karachi Stock Exchange’s (KSE) benchmark 100-share index lost 0.77% or 181.32 points to end at the 23,315.15 point level. Trade volumes rose to 249 million shares, compared with Friday’s tally of 214 million shares.

“The market kicked off on a positive note, however it failed to sustain the momentum amid selling in cement and banking stocks,” said Veer Bajaj, analyst at JS Global Capital.

According to Samar Iqbal, analyst at Topline Securities, investors were influenced by “newspaper reports that the IMF may insist that the government increase the interest rate”. Still, Bajaj positively noted: “Oil marketing companies such as Pakistan State Oil (PSO) remained in the limelight due to the anticipated petroleum product price hike while the fertiliser sector also closed in the green with positive urea off-take numbers.”



The value of shares traded during the day was Rs10.44 billion.

Fauji Cement was the volume leader with 52.83 million shares losing Rs0.36 to finish at Rs16.83. It was followed by Bank of Punjab with 22.22 million shares losing Rs0.38 to close at Rs13.39 and Lafarge Pakistan Cement with 15.52 million shares losing Rs0.23 to close at Rs10.74.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs115 million, according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan.

SOURCE: KSE

A key event to look out for, according to Faisal Bilwani, analyst at Elixir Securities: “Investors are likely to cheer tomorrow’s presidential election where the ruling Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz’s presidential; candidate is to get a smooth sailing through.”

Published in The Express Tribune, July 30^th, 2013.

Like Business on Facebook, follow @TribuneBiz on Twitter to stay informed and join in the conversation.