Market watch: Stock market treads with caution as IMF talks continue

Benchmark KSE-100 index falls 76 points.

KARACHI: The stock market continued to slide on the second day of the week despite positive results by several companies, as the market waits for the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) appraisal of the government’s economic progress.

Karachi Stock Exchange’s (KSE) benchmark 100-share index fell 0.34% or 76.55 points to end at 22,276.65 points.

“Equities closed negative with limited participation from investors and interest in select names as most await outcome of ongoing talks between government and the IMF,” said Jawwad Aboobakar of Elixir Securities.



“Earnings announcements generated little excitement on a rather dull day. Despite Engro Corp’s (ENGRO PA) earnings being reported above expectation, late selling reportedly by local institutions pulled the stock to close in red,” Aboobakar added

“Correction continued in the market where the KSE-100 index closed down by 77 points,” said Fahad Ali of JS Global.

Important blue chip companies’ result announcements also failed to change the momentum of the market where Nishat Mills Limited (NML) announced its 1QFY14 results today, posting earnings growth of 48% YoY to Rs1.6bn (EPS: Rs4.47).

Another blue chip company that announced its quarterly results was Engro Corporation (ENGRO), which showed earnings of Rs2.479 billion in 3Q2013 against a loss of Rs103 million in the same period last year. Volumes throughout the day remained depressed.



Trade volumes fell to 80 million shares compared with Monday’s tally of 158 million shares.

Shares of 317 companies were traded on Tuesday. At the end of the day 104 stocks closed higher, 191 declined while 22 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs3 billion.

KASB Bank Limited was the volume leader with 10.39 million shares gaining Rs0.34 to finish at Rs2.03. It was followed by Jahangir Siddiqui and Company with 4.78 million shares losing Rs0.25 to close at Rs8.19 and Bank of Punjab with 4.71 shares gaining Rs0.18 to close at Rs10.24.

Foreign institutional investors were net buyers of Rs482 million, according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 30^th, 2013.

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