Market watch: Bourse continues downward trend

KSE benchmark index falls 95 points.

KARACHI:

The recent slump in the stock market continued on Thursday as the bourse fell another 95 points, or 0.8% to end the day at 11846.16 points.

The sustained fall seemed to reflect the lack of improvement in both, the law and order situation and weak international markets, said Arif Habib Investments director Ahsan Mehanti.

Unlike the preceding day however, institutional buying in index heavy weights averted a steep fall in prices, said JS Global analyst Murtaza Jafar.

Buying in Pakistan Oilfields, MCB Bank and Lucky Cement kept the broader market in check, Jafar said.

Foreign institutional investors were net buyers of Rs169 million worth of shares during the trade session, according to data compiled by National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.

With the oil, cement and banking sector stable, locals were buyers in energy and cement names, while foreign institutional buyers were rumoured to have bought shares in banking.

72 companies saw their shares rise while 136 companies declined and 87 remained unchanged.

Trade volumes rose to 48.58 million shares compared with yesterday’s 46 million. The total value of trade on Wednesday was worth Rs2.26 billion.

The top ten traded companies all witnessed profit taking, with the top three companies remaining the same as Wednesday. Lotte Pakistan led with 4.9 million shares at Rs11.69 after a decline of Rs0.07. National Bank of Pakistan was second with 3.55 million shares traded at Rs49.19 after a decline of Rs1.7. Jahangir Siddiqui and Company was third with 2.9 million shares traded at Rs6.38 after a decline of Rs0.33.





Published in The Express Tribune, August 5^th, 2011.