Market watch: Another beating for the index

Benchmark index loses 489.53 points.


Our Correspondent March 24, 2015
Trade volumes fell to 128 million shares compared to 141.8 million on Friday. PHOTO: RASHID AJMERI/EXPRESS

KARACHI: Despite a cut in the discount rate, volatile trading at the bourse continued as the index suffered another beating on Tuesday.

At close on the first session of the week, the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE)-100 Index fell 1.54% or 489.53 points to close at 31,310.73.

Elixir Securities analyst Haris Ahmed Batla said local investors continued to track foreign flows and opted to remain sidelined, providing much room for stocks to sink with MCB Bank (MCB PA -5%) hitting lower price limt; now down over 28% from its peak in early February.



“Exploration plays with the exception of Pakistan Oilfields (POL PA -3.6%) that  seemed resilient to further fall and closed flat as value hunters dare to take advantage of the weakness,” said Batla.

JS Global analyst Ahmed Saeed Khan, on the other hand, was of the view that after the 350-point addition on Friday, it was presumed by all that the foreign selling spree had ended and the market would exit its downward trajectory. “But to everyone’s surprise, foreign selling continued and, as usual, local investors followed,” he said.

Khan further informed that the LNG import deal was to be signed by the Emir of Qatar on Tuesday and the fertiliser sector had been exempted from GIDC on the consumption of LNG.

“In the long run, fertiliser is the play with top picks being Fauji Fertilizer Company (+2.5%) and Fauji Fertilizer Bin Qasim Limited (+1.1%). Though the cut in the interest rate is a long term negative for the banking sector, yet short term gains can be made on scripts that have high PIBs holdings.”

“Favored scripts for short play in banking would be BAHL (+2.0%) and UBL (+0.6%),” Khan concluded.

Trade volumes fell to 128 million shares compared to 141.8 million on Friday.

Shares of 344 companies were traded on Tuesday. Of these, 243 companies declined, 79 closed higher and 22 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs8.6 billion

Pak Elektron was the volume leader with 14.5 million shares, gaining Rs0.04 to close at Rs50.72. It was followed by Jahangir Siddiqui and Company with 9.3 million shares, losing Rs0.22 to close at Rs15.80 and Maple Leaf Cement with 9 million shares, losing Rs1.56 to close at Rs52.89.


Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs728 million during the session, according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan.


Published in The Express Tribune, March  25th,  2015.

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