Market watch: Stock market’s slump continues

Benchmark KSE-100 index falls 120.49 points


Our Correspondent November 26, 2015
Benchmark KSE-100 index falls 120.49 points. PHOTO: AFP/FILE

KARACHI: Pakistan equities continued to tumble for the seventh day in a row, finishing negative to near the 33,000-point mark.

Although the day started out positive like most sessions, the benchmark-100 index witnessed selling pressure soon enough. Investors chose to cash in their chips fragmenting whatever gains had been made and the tumble continued till the day’s close.

At close on Thursday, the Karachi Stock Exchange’s (KSE) benchmark 100-share index fell 0.36% or 120.49 points to end at 33,079.37.



JS Global analyst Ovais Ahsan said the bearish trend of the market remained intact as the index closed in the red again. “The banking sector led the decline as heavy weights MCB (-2.78%), HBL (-0.51%) and UBL (-0.94%) came off.

“Local investors remained cautious with fear of foreign selling preying on their minds.

“Bank Alfalah (+3.64%) rallied on the news of a merger happening between Mobilink and Warid Telecom since it owns an 8.76% stake in Warid Telecom.”

Meanwhile, Topline Securities analyst Mohammad Rizwan said selling pressure was witnessed, forbidding the market to remain in the green. “SSGC witnessed another volatile session as it topped the most active stocks and managed to post an increase of 2% with a healthy volume of 18 million shares.

“Continuous selling pressure was seen in fertiliser stocks on the back of higher inventory levels of urea. As a result, stocks like Engro, EFERT and Fatima were down 0.62% to 4.78%.”

Arif Habib Corporation analyst Ahsan Mehanti said that equities closed lower amid pressure in oil, while banking and fertiliser scrips declined on weak earnings outlook. “Likely impact of Rs40 billion new tax measures from next week to meet revenue shortfall weakened the sentiments.

Trade volumes fell to 140 million shares compared with Wednesday’s tally of 153 million shares.

Shares of 362 companies were traded on Thursday. At the end of the day, 134 stocks closed higher, 206 declined while 22 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs6.3 billion.



Sui South Gas was the volume leader with 18.1 million shares, gaining Rs0.88 to finish at Rs43.91. It was followed by TRG Pakistan with 11.1 million shares, losing Rs0.29 to close at Rs38.75 and Sui North Gas with 9.3 million shares, gaining Rs0.38 to close at Rs30.50.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs349 million during the trade session, according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.


Published in The Express Tribune, November 27th,  2015.

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