Market Watch: Bourse dips to two-month low

Benchmark KSE-100 index drops 167 points

KARACHI:

The stock market declined to its lowest point in two months on Thursday as fears over the United States defaulting gripped an already weak local market.

The ongoing tussle between the government and the judiciary also forced local investors to remain on the sidelines, said Topline Securities equity dealer Samar Iqbal.

The Karachi Stock Exchange’s (KSE) benchmark 100-share index fell 167.48 points or 1.37% to end at 12,098.05 points.

Panic selling was witnessed today as investors remained passive due to continuous selling by offshore investors over rising concerns regarding the United States’ credit rating outlook and the deadlock amongst American law makers over raising the debt limit.

Foreign institutional investors were gross buyers of Rs268.9 million and gross sellers of Rs653.6 million during the trade session, according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.

Local investors were wary and refused to benefit from the current weaknesses of the market. They were concerned over foreign selling following the global market decline, said Elixir Securities equity dealer Faisal Bilwani. Engro Corporation closed in the negative despite news that gas supply has been restored to its new plant while Pakistan Oilfields continued its downward slide on flows, however, late buying in both covered most of the early losses, added Bilwani.

Trade volumes rose to 64.32 million shares compared with Wednesday’s tally of 61.22 million shares. Hub Power Company led the charts with 6.8 million shares closing at Rs39 after a decline of Rs0.49. Jahangir Siddiqui and Company was second with 4.3 million shares traded with the price remaining unchanged at Rs6.92. Fauji Fertilizer was third with 3.6 million shares closing at Rs157.22 after a decline of Rs3.98.

Shares of 377 companies were traded on Thursday. At the end of the day 64 stocks closed higher, 190 declined while 123 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs3.9 billion.







Published in The Express Tribune, July 29^th, 2011.