Market watch: Index remains under pressure, nears 33,500

Benchmark KSE-100 index falls 161.32 points

KARACHI: The benchmark-100 index remained under pressure, closing negative for a fifth successive session to settle at 33,571.59 points.

Locals remained on the sidelines and refrained from taking advantage of the prevailing weakness, with the absence of meaningful triggers and thin volumes keeping them at bay.

Foreign selling continued to cause anxiety as the value of shares remained under Rs7 billion.

At close on Tuesday, the Karachi Stock Exchange’s (KSE) benchmark 100-share index fell 0.48% or 161.32 points to end at 33,571.59.



Elixir Securities, in its report, said oils that opened up on Monday failed to sustain gains on reported foreign selling, with Oil & Gas Development Company OGDC (PA -0.38%) closing little changed after close to 3 million shares exchanged hands off market.

“Rumours of broker investigation near day’s close ensured value hunters to stay away from market while confidence remains weak.

“We expect benchmark KSE100 to test channel support between 33,400/500, and investors to track both foreign flows and activity by local capital preservation funds that may cause further dent in case of any aggressive selling,” it said.

Meanwhile, JS Global analyst Ovais Ahsan said bears maintained their grip over proceedings as the market continued to tread lower into negative territory driven down by index heavy weights MCB (1.59%) and Dawood Hercules (-1.86%).

“The textile sector reacted to exports depicting a 10.7% decline YoY in October as Nishat Mill (-1.06%) lost ground.

“Engro (+0.75%) and its subsidiary Engro Polymer (EPCL +5.00%) gained on the back of material information disclosure that ATS Synthetics is seeking to acquire 56.2% shareholding of EPCL.”



“The pharmaceutical sector was led lower by Searle (-3.82%) and Abbott (2.05%) on news articles suggesting that the industry was not happy with the government’s apathy towards the sector,” said Ahsan.

Trade volumes rose to 157 million shares compared with Monday’s tally of 144 million shares.

Shares of 377 companies were traded on Tuesday. At the end of the day, 99 stocks closed higher, 251 declined and 27 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs6.6 billion.

K-Electric Limited was the volume leader with 18.1 million shares, losing Rs0.11 to finish at Rs7.50. It was followed by TRG Pakistan Limited with 16.2 million shares, gaining Rs0.12 to close at Rs38.83 and Sui Southern Gas Company with 15.1 million shares, losing Rs0.69 to close at Rs41.24.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs347 million worth of shares during the trade session, according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 25^th, 2015.

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