Stocks fall as selling witnessed in oil shares

Karachi Stock Exchange's benchmark 100-share index ends 0.12 per cent or 12.95 points lower at 11,221.81.

KARACHI: The stock market fell on Wednesday as major selling was witnessed in key oil stocks following news of a cut in petrol margin of oil marketing companies and refineries.

The Karachi Stock Exchange’s benchmark 100-share index ended 0.12 per cent or 12.95 points lower at 11,221.81.

Bearish activity was witnessed after the government’s unexpected decision to slash oil marketing companies and refinery margins to three per cent from four per cent, said Arif Habib Investments Limited Director Ahsan Mehanti.

Attock Refinery Limited and National Refinery Limited closed at their lower circuit breakers. Pakistan State Oil shed one per cent while Shell closed down 3.4 per cent.

The trading volume took a 4.4 per cent dip to 158 million shares compared with 165.2 million shares traded a day earlier.

Earlier, the market opened on a positive note as the KSE-100 index breached the 11,300-point psychological barrier to hit 11,329.06 points, depicting a 94.3-point increase in the first trading hour. However, the positive momentum could not be sustained because of selling pressure in blue chips which gradually pushed the index into negative territory.

Shares of 396 companies were traded on Wednesday. At the end of the day, 152 stocks closed higher, 222 declined and 22 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs7.49 billion.

DG Khan Cement remained the volume leader with a little under 26 million shares changing hands. The scrip gained 4.9 per cent to close at Rs29.62.

It was followed by Nishat Mills Limited with 20.89 million shares falling Rs0.48 to close at Rs59.13 and Lotte Pakistan PTA with 10.29 million shares losing Rs0.19 to close at Rs12.17.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 2^nd, 2010.