Market watch: Stock market experiences dip on rumours of foreign selling

Benchmark KSE-100 index falls 179.59 points.

KARACHI: The stock exchange reversed yesterday’s gain, falling as steeply as it jumped yesterday when it almost crossed the 24,000-points barrier.

The Karachi Stock Exchange’s (KSE) benchmark 100-share index fell 0.75% or 179.59 points to end at 23798.70.

The index experienced a substantial dip after making a marginal high of 23,998 points in early trades, but closed negative with late selling dragging the benchmark to below 23,800. After seeing some foreign selling yesterday, rumours of the trend continued which led to the rupee losing ground.



JS Global Capital analyst Fahad Ali said participation was mostly seen on part of the locals. “But volumes remained on the lower side,” added Ali. “The KSE-100 has failed to breach the 24,000-point psychological level in the past 2 days.”

Fasial Bilwani from Elixir Securities believed the reported trade blocks on the sell side in MCB Bank (MCB PA -1.8% )  and Oil and Gas Development Company(OGDC PA -0.4% ) have reduced the sentiment, while retail investors continue to remain cautious ahead of future counter roll over the week.

“Textile giant Nishat Mills (NML PA +1.7%) traded against broader market direction and closed green on excitement over market access to Europe, while Nestle Pakistan (NESTLE PA) continued its upward ride on rumors of parent company increasing holding,” Bilwani added.

Trade volumes fell to 129 million shares compared with Monday’s tally of 141 million shares.

Shares of 340 companies were traded on the last trading session of the week. At the end of the day 121 stocks closed higher, 198 declined while 21 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs7.195 billion.



PTCL was the volume leader with 15.8 million shares, losing Rs0.11 to finish at Rs29.97. It was followed by Telecard Limited with 14 million shares, gaining Rs0.37 to close at Rs5.88 and Nishat Mills Limited with 6.4 million shares, increasing Rs1.84 to close at Rs106.19.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs653 million during the trade session, according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 27^th, 2013.

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