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Friday March 29, 2024

Karachi stocks trim losses on institutional support

Karachi stock market extended losses on Tuesday but late buying from institutional investors pared most of the losses and closed the index only 0.07 percent down, dealers said.Analyst Samar Iqbal at Topline Securities said the benchmark index dropped as much as 1.22 percent in a broad sell-off early in the

By our correspondents
March 04, 2015
Karachi stock market extended losses on Tuesday but late buying from institutional investors pared most of the losses and closed the index only 0.07 percent down, dealers said.
Analyst Samar Iqbal at Topline Securities said the benchmark index dropped as much as 1.22 percent in a broad sell-off early in the session on speculations of selling by local and foreign funds “After two days of profit taking … market will gradually recover, upcoming monetary policy and trend of foreign flows will remain key triggers for the market,” Iqbal, in a post market comment, said. The market is heavily weighted towards energy and finance stocks and index heavy weight OGDC and MCB, with a combined share of 14 percent in KSE 100 Index, was the main drag on the bourse. “These two stocks negatively affected the Index by 100 points,” Iqbal said. Dozens of stocks closed in the black and the country’s largest cement producer, Lucky Cement was the main support, jumping four percent “after Investors realized that the share has fallen too much in last few weeks and bought Lucky aggressively at the end of the trading session.” Buying in lucky also helped other cement stocks.
The KSE-100 Index closed lower by 24.81 points or 0.07 percent to 33,188.77 points against 33,213.58 points recorded in the last session. The highest index of the day remained at 33,293.95 points while the lowest level of the day was recorded at 32,811.64 points. KSE-30 Index, however, improved by 2.10 points or 0.01 percent to 21,669.67 points against 21,667.57 points.
Turnover increased by 53 million shares to 212.13 million shares against 159.64 million shares, trading value rose to Rs13.37 billion against Rs10.34 billion while market capital fell to Rs7.49 trillion against Rs7.51 trillion recorded in the last session. Of a total of 376 companies’ active in the session, 159 closed in green, 199 in red whereas 18 remained unchanged.
ENGRO remained in the limelight with Rs2.8 billion worth of shares changing hand. Investors gradually accumulated ENGRO after official approval of concessionary gas to its subsidiary EFERT.
Shuja Rizvi, director at Al-Hoqani Securities said buying picked up late hours once the benchmark index held above 32,800, a psychologically important level.
He said activity is likely to pick up as attractive prices will lure investors back to the market. “Technically, the market is very strong and while it may be affected briefly on a minor drawback, it should be moving back up,” Rizvi said.
Highest increase was recorded in shares of Exide (Pak), which rose by Rs59.35 to Rs1,246.40 per share, followed by Sanofi-Aventis that increased by Rs25.98 to Rs761.99 per share. Major decline was noted in shares of Nestle Pak, which fell by Rs200.00 to Rs10,000.00 per share, followed by Shezan Inter that decreased by Rs57.00 to Rs1,088.50 per share.
Significant turnover was recorded in stocks of K-Electric Ltd, Jahangir Siddiqui Co, Pak Elektron, Bank of Khyber, Maple Leaf Cement, Pak Int Bulk, Engro Corp, Engro Fertilizers Ltd, DG Khan Cement and Fauji Fertilizer Bin Qasim.
K-Electric Ltd remained the volume leader with 19.02 million shares with an increase of 19 paisas to Rs7.95 per share. It was followed by Jahangir Siddiqui Co with 18.71 million shares with a decline of 24 paisas to Rs20.01 per share. Shares’ turnover in the futures market improved to 29.14 million shares from 24.17 million shares traded in the previous session.