Market Watch: Bourse closes in the red amid profit taking

Benchmark KSE-100 index slides 154 points.

KARACHI:

The stock market closed in the negative territory amid soaring volumes on Friday, as investors booked profits before the weekend.

The Karachi Stock Exchange’s (KSE) benchmark 100-share index shed 1.14% or 153.95 points to end at 13,297.12 point level.

According to JS Global Analyst Ahmed Rauf, investors chose to book profits as the market failed to sustain at the 13,500 point level.

Panic selling was witnessed in the second half of the session as the market underwent technical correction after the market hovered near a four-year high on Thursday.

The dip followed rumours in the market of foreign selling in stocks for a second day, as a net outflow of $2 million was recorded on Thursday, said Rauf.

Rumours turned out to be true as data released after closing on Friday revealed that foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs144 million, according to National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.

Oil stocks bore the brunt of selling with Pakistan State Oil leading the way as it closed at its daily lower limit. Oil and Gas Development Company and Pakistan Oilfields Limited also saw stock value erode by 1.6% and 2.1% respectively.

Trade volumes surged to a healthy 426.21 million shares, compared with Thursday’s tally of 336.91million shares. Second and third tier stocks continued to dominate trade volumes.

Shares of 373 companies were traded on Friday. At the end of the day 129 stocks closed higher, 181 declined while 63 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs6.69 billion.

Lafarge Pakistan was the volume leader with 57.48 million shares gaining Rs0.41 to finish at Rs3.87. It was followed by Jahangir Siddiqui Company Limited (JSCL) with 48.68 million shares gaining Rs0.73 to close at Rs18.39 and Fauji Cement with 22.34 million shares losing Rs0.06 to close at Rs5.44. Lafarge and JSCL were also among major gainers in the day, with stock prices appreciating 11.85% and 4.13% respectively, while the Karachi Electricity Supply Corporation’s stock surged by an impressive 42.19%.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 17^th, 2012.