Benchmark KSE-100 index falls 313 points. AFP/FILE
News of Muttahida Qaumi Movement lawmakers resigning from the parliament and Sindh Assembly did not sit down well as investors feared a negative reaction and backtracked from their positions.
At close, the KSE 100 index fell 0.86% or 313 points to end at 35,892.77.
The index began on a positive note before uncertainty over the political scenario meant the slide began.
JS Global analyst Ahmed Saeed Khan said positivity prevailed during the first half of the session as index almost touched 36,310 points. “However, the market took a nose dive mid-day due to increasing political tension,” said Khan. “News of the MQM resigning forced investors to backtrack.
“Major support of the index were pharmaceutical stocks with GlaxoSmithKline (+5%) and Searle (+1.5%) being the top performers. Profit taking was witnessed in the cement sector.
“As July’s auto sales numbers disappointed, the entire sector remained in the red zone with the exception of Ghandhara Nissan Limited (+1.1%),” said Khan.
“Pak Elektron Limited (+1.4%), was the star performer for the day, as investors thought the depreciating yuan would be beneficial for the company’s sizeable Chinese imports.”
Khan concluded that going forward the market is expected to remain volatile.
Meanwhile, an analyst at Topline Securities said falling global equity markets also dampened investors’ sentiments. “Profit taking was seen in Attock Petroleum Limited and National Refinery Limited after their June result announcements,” said the analyst.
Trade volumes rose to 359 million shares compared with Tuesday’s tally of 328 million shares.
Shares of 391 companies were traded on Wednesday. At the end of the day, 132 stocks closed higher, 253 declined while 6 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs13.5 billion.
Pace (Pak) Ltd was the volume leader with 39.6 million shares gaining Rs0.55 to finish at Rs7.75. It was followed by Silk bank (R) with 32.5 million shares losing Rs0.05 to close at Rs0.14 and K-Electric Ltd with 21.7 million shares gaining Rs0.10 to close at Rs8.07.
Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs87 million during the trade session, according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 13th, 2015.
Like Business on Facebook, follow @TribuneBiz on Twitter to stay informed and join in the conversation.
COMMENTS
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ