“Market volumes fell to a 20-week low in the absence of any trigger. Most investors adopted a cautious strategy, as the market witnessed massive foreign selling of $16.8 million last week,” reported Topline Securities equity dealer Samar Iqbal.
“Stocks closed higher amid thin trades on institutional support in an oversold market,” added Arif Habib Corp Director Ahsan Mehanti. “Concerns over the falling rupee and macroeconomic uncertainty affected activity.”
The Karachi Stock Exchange’s (KSE) benchmark 100-share index climbed 0.32% or 42.76 points to end at the 13,601.46 point level. Meanwhile, trade volumes plummeted to a paltry 60 million shares compared with Friday’s tally of 110 million shares. The value of shares traded during the day was a modest Rs1.69 billion.
“Recovery in international equities could not restore confidence, as local political and macroeconomic conditions overshadowed sentiments. Depreciation in the rupee and deadlocks in the relationship with the US kept investors on the sideline. In the coming days, reopening of Nato supplies could give the market a much needed trigger to revive participants’ interest. The resulting foreign flow should also stabilise the falling rupee,” commented JS Global analyst Shakir Padela.
Shares of 323 companies were traded on Monday. At the end of the day 130 stocks closed higher, 129 declined while 64 remained unchanged.
Jahangir Siddiqui Company was the volume leader with 6.88 million shares gaining Rs0.56 to finish at Rs14.49. It was followed by Nishat Power with 5.09 million shares gaining Rs0.40 to close at Rs14.87 and Pakistan Telecommunication Company with 5.00 million shares losing Rs0.01 to close at Rs14.37.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 12th, 2012.
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"Concerns over the falling rupee and macroeconomic uncertainty affected activity". Is there any hardcore evidence to support the fact that falling rupee is basically an indictor of selling trend in stock market though analytically this appears to be the case like invenstors are withdrawing money from stock market and investing in money market to get more benefit.