Market watch: New Year festivities short-lived at KSE

Index loses 110 points as investors book profits.

KARACHI: The New Year opened on a sour note for the stock market, as the first day of trading in 2013 saw the index slide by more than a hundred points amid lower participation.

“Stocks closed lower on institutional profit-taking in stocks across the board, amid concerns for rising political uncertainty after political leaders called for a long march on January 14,” said Arif Habib Corp analyst Ahsan Mehanti. “Falling banking spreads, looming energy crises and global uncertainty over the impact of the US fiscal cliff affected foreign interest at the stock exchange.”

The Karachi Stock Exchange’s (KSE) benchmark 100-share index lost 0.65% or 110.46 points to end at the 16,794.87 points level. Trade volumes plummeted to 120 million shares compared with Monday’s tally of 178 million shares. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs2.14 billion.

Shares of 364 companies were traded on Tuesday. At the end of the day 83 stocks closed higher, 238 declined while 43 remained unchanged.

“Consumer Price Index inflation for December 2012 [clocked in] at 7.93% year-on-year versus an estimated 7.7% and November’s figure of 6.93%. Released near the midday, the news gave equities a good excuse to correct,” said Harris Ahmed Batla, analyst at Elixir Securities.

“Volumes were seen in Nishat Mills, as market participants are expecting a strong result for the quarter. The scrip closed marginally up by 0.4%. Bank of Punjab came down by 9.3% after it announced a rights share issue,” reported Shakir Padela, JS Global analyst. “The Oil and Gas Development Company and Muslim Commercial Bank both closed down 0.4% due to a lack of any foreign activity and triggers.”

Bank of Punjab was the volume leader with 15.82 million shares losing Rs0.99 to finish at Rs9.71. It was followed by Pakistan International Airlines with 11.32 million shares gaining Rs0.39 to close at Rs4.42 and Byco Petroleum with 8.23 million shares losing Rs0.35 to close at Rs14.10.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs13.14 million, according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 2^nd, 2013.                

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