Market watch: Bourse declines as investors bank profits

Benchmark KSE-100 index falls 83 points.

KARACHI: Investors opted to bank their profits on Wednesday following news that the competition watchdog challenged the establishment of a unified telecom gateway led by Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL). 

The Karachi Stock Exchange’s (KSE) benchmark 100-share index fell 0.55% or 83.2 points to end at 15,151.31 points.

“Traders booked profits as investor confidence weakened after news that the Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) challenged Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) over implementation of the international clearing house (ICH),” said Mujtaba Barakzai, analyst at JS Global Capital.  The proposed ICH gateway will converge all international calls to a single technical gateway led by PTCL against the current practice of being handled by 14 long distance international operators. PTCL led the selling, shedding 5.3% of its value, to close near its daily lower limit.

Index heavyweight Oil and Gas Development Company – falling 0.05% – dragged the market into the red zone as well, Barakzai added.

“Concerns for rising circular debt in the energy sector played a catalyst role in bearish sentiments at the bourse,” said Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corporation.

Engro Corporation witnessed a fall of 0.05% over the uncertainty that the fertiliser giant will be given gas from other sources other than the Sui gas network. The new plant of Engro Fertilizers operated for only 33 days due to gas shortage on the Sui network in the first six months of 2012.

Trade volumes fell significantly to 197.7 million shares compared with Tuesday’s tally of 304.5 million shares.

PTCL was the volume leader with 33.6 million shares shedding Rs0.91 to finish at Rs16.4. It was followed by Pace Pakistan – a real estate development company – with 15.5 million shares gaining Rs0.33 to close at Rs3.10 and Telecard Limited with 15.1 million shares losing Rs0.23 to close at Rs2.44.

Foreign institutional investors were net buyers of Rs118.7 million, according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.

Shares of 348 companies were traded on the third trading session of the week. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs 4.2 billion, considerable decline from Rs7.2 billion witnessed on Tuesday.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 30^th, 2012.