At the end of the day, 111 stocks closed higher, 192 declined while 43 remained unchanged.
The last trading session of the week was marked by a significant development in the telecom sector, with news from across the globe triggering a selling bout that dragged the index lower.
The Federal Communications Commission of the US has ordered all US telecom service providers to suspend payments to Pakistani long distance international operators in excess of $0.02 per minute. The setting up of the International Clearing House (ICH) in Pakistan has taken the rates up to $0.088 per minute.
Pakistan Telecommunication Company (PTCL) was the volume leader following the development with 45.39 million shares changing hands, losing Rs1.04 to finish at Rs20.76. It was followed by Telecard with 29.11 million shares, losing Rs0.67 to close at Rs5.75 and Engro Corporation with 21.78 million shares, gaining Rs5.81 to close at Rs127.98.
Shares of 346 companies were traded on Friday. The Karachi Stock Exchange’s (KSE) benchmark 100-share index dropped 0.16% or 28.73 points to end at 17,964.18 points. At the end of the day, 111 stocks closed higher, 192 declined while 43 remained unchanged.
Trade volumes increased to 235 million shares compared with Thursday’s tally of 185 million shares. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs8.05 billion.
“Equities closed marginally down, as the bourse attempts to consolidate above 18,000 levels […] late selling in United Bank (UBL) and PTCL pushed the index to close lower,” reported Elixir Securities’ analyst Sibtain Mustafa. “PTCL hit the lower lock to exchange more than 40 million shares, as analysts expect its loss of revenue [due to the development in the US] to be Rs0.15 to Rs0.20 per share.”
“Engro Corp closed at its upper cap after unconfirmed news that they would get gas at a lower rate than anticipated earlier,” reported Topline Securities’ Senior Manager of Equity Sales Samar Iqbal.
Foreign institutional investors were buyers of Rs359.09 million and sellers of Rs270.05 million worth of shares, according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 9th, 2013.
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