Market watch: KSE stays bearish for third consecutive day

Poor earning announcements keep bourse on correction path.


Our Correspondent August 06, 2013
The Karachi Stock Exchange’s (KSE) benchmark 100-share index shed 0.35% or 79.37 points to end at 22,621.93 point level. PHOTO: AFP/FILE

KARACHI:


The country’s largest bourse continued its losing streak for a third consecutive session as oil stocks tumbled after result announcement by index heavyweights which were below street estimates. Moreover, Engro Corporation and its food subsidiary dented sentiments which led to investors trimming their positions rather than fresh buying at the stock market.


The Karachi Stock Exchange’s (KSE) benchmark 100-share index shed 0.35% or 79.37 points to end at 22,621.93 point level. Trade volumes fell to 136 million shares, compared with Monday’s tally of 232 million shares.

Equities closed negative for a third consecutive bearish session as oil stocks tumbled after Oil and Gas Development Company’s results announcements which were below market expectations, reported Faisal Bilwani, analyst at Elixir Securities. On the other hand, JS Global Capital’s Mujtaba Barakzai holds Engro Corporation the primary culprit for sparking the bearish trend.



Despite aggressive selling in two index heavy sectors, the banking sector managed to contain the situation over expectations of an uptick in interest rates in the next monetary policy in the light of a higher inflation figure for the month of July.

Shares of 342 companies were traded on Tuesday. At the end of the day 136 stocks closed higher, 165 declined while 41 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs8.13 billion.

Engro Foods continued its downward trend, sinking its parent Engro Corporation down too, after announcing lower than expected earnings earlier. Pakistan Petroleum and Pakistan State Oil also closed in the red on reported foreign selling.



That said, the banking sector acted as support to break off the bearish trend on rumours of a hike in discount rates following higher than expected inflation figures for the month of July.

Fauji Cement was the volume leader with 16.08 million shares falling Rs0.6 to finish at Rs14.37. It was followed by National Bank of Pakistan with 10.52 million shares gaining Rs1.54 to close at Rs54.61 and Engro Foods with 9.39 million shares losing Rs6.2 to close at Rs119.49.

Foreign institutional investors were buyers of Rs1 billion and sellers of Rs784 million, according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 7th, 2013.

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