Market watch: A see-saw ride ends in the red

Benchmark KSE-100 index falls 24.81 points.

KARACHI: A see-saw ride witnessed the index open in the positive, plunge below the 33,000 level, rise again to the black before its jump was brought to a halt again. A highly volatile session saw the index end in the red for the seventh successive time, bringing the combined seven-day decline to over 804 points.

At close on Tuesday, the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) benchmark 100-share index recorded a drop of 0.07% or 24.81 points to end at 33,188.77.

Elixir Securities analyst Haris Ahmed Batla said Mondat’s decline hovered over day traders that resulted in further panic selling, which pushed the benchmark index below 33,000.



“With recent inflation numbers on 11-year low, combined with Moody’s positive credit outlook on Pakistan, institutional value buying at lows helped broader market sentiments particularly the most benefited cement plays to the likes of Lucky Cement 9LUCK PA +3.73%) and DG Khan Cement (DGKC PA +4.03%).

“Engro Corporation (ENGRO PA -.01%) tumbled despite obtaining the concessionary gas supply for its fertiliser plant, and traded volatile and led volumes in the first-tier stocks to close unchanged, while volumes chart remained dominated by small cap retail plays,” he said.

Meanwhile, JS Global analyst Mohammad Mobeen said the market maintained its bearish momentum throughout the day with the exception of the last hour.

“As a whole, the banking sector was the laggard, MCB (-3.2%), NBP (-2.4%). The cement sector remained upbeat as expectations of higher dispatch numbers prevailed amongst investors.



“Due to unexpectedly low CPI number for February, we are expecting an interest rate cut of 50bps,” concluded Mobeen.

Trade volumes rose to 212 million shares compared to 159 million on Monday.

Shares of 376 companies were traded. Of these, 199 declined, 159 closed higher and 18 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs13.3 billion.

K-Electric Limited was the volume leader with 19 million shares, gaining Rs0.19 to close at Rs7.95. It was followed by Jahangir Siddiqui and Company with 18.7 million shares, losing Rs0.24 to close at Rs20.01 and Pak Elektron with 17.1 million shares, losing Rs1.60 to close at Rs57.65.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs422 million worth of shares during the trading session, according to data compiled by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 4^th, 2015.

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