KARACHI:
After a bullish performance last week, the stock market followed its regional peers and fell on the first trading session of the week.
The Karachi Stock Exchange’s benchmark 100- share index dropped 105.57 points to close at closed at 11,181 points on Monday.
Explaining the lower volumes, JS Global Online’s Ahmed Rauf explained that, “Volumes remained subdued as investors preferred to stay sidelined amid political instability”.
This negative opening of the market coincides with the results announcement of the Attock Group.
Lower than expected payout from Attock Group in early market hours set the tone with only Attock Petroleum posting better-than-expected earnings, according to an analyst.
The results of Attock Petroleum were unable to help the market set a higher trend. Mainly because Pakistan Oilfield’s earnings were in line with market expectations while Attock Refinery and National refinery’s results disappointed investors.
The concern over impact of recent floods in Sindh and increase in trade deficit is likely to reignite macroeconomic worries, mainly currency depreciation, according to Elixir Securities’ Faisal Bilwani. The delayed announcement of CPI number for September 2011 which was due this week is likely to set the tone in the coming days while the broader market makes changes depending on inflows while remaining sensitive to political developments as major political parties continue strong rhetoric against each other.
Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs112 million, according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.
Shares of 317 companies were traded on Wednesday. At the end of the day 84 stocks closed higher, 145 declined while 88 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs3.08 billion.
Lotte Pakistan PTA was the volume leader with 9.49 million shares gaining Rs0.35 to finish at Rs13.00 due to higher PTA margins. It was followed by National Bank of Pakistan with 5.14 million shares losing Rs1.44 to close at Rs42.75 and Engro Corp. with 2.8 million shares losing Rs4.85 to close at Rs130.35.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 13th, 2011.
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