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WEEKLY
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| Karachi bourse plunges 287 points on panic selling |
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Tuesday, November 03, 2009
By our correspondent
KARACHI: Another suicide blast in the garrison city of Rawalpindi and emergence of political entanglement over the NRO crushed the confidence of investors at the Karachi stocks market that saw benchmark KSE-100 share index slip bellow 9,000 points with a loss of over three per cent on Monday.
Despite of notably thin turnover of 152 million shares, the foreign portfolio investors remained aggregated buyers of shares worth $3.10 million in this session, according to NCCPL. The KSE 100-share Index posted a plunge of 3.13 per cent or 286.78 points and finished at 8,872.40. The market lost 9,000 points threshold after maintaining above this mark for seven-and-half weeks.
The free-float market capitalisation based 30-Index tumbled 3.59 per cent or 346.92 points and ended at 9,315.95 points. Analysts were of the view that the bloodbath in the city of Rawalpindi, claiming about 30 lives besides dozens wounded, and intense opposition to the NRO were the two major reasons of pulling market down in red. The announcement of some important corporate results below the market expectation also added gloom to the already bad market.
Almost every stock faced the mounted selling pressure. The securities-cum-investment companies, oil marketing companies, cement, fertilizer and refineries were the most effected sectors. More than three-dozen stocks closed at their one-day maximum decline of five per cent or Re1 or near to it in the sectors mentioned above.
While leading banking, exploration & production companies and telecom stocks contributed double digit points in negative on indices.National Bank, Habib Bank, MCB Bank, United Bank, Oil & Gas Development Company, Pak Petroleum, and Pakistan Telecommunication Company were the prominent index movers, placing the market in deep red.
Ahsan Mehanti at Shahzad Chamdia Securities said that intense selling was witnessed as security conditions in the country worsened after suicide blast in Rawalpindi.Announcement for NRO opposition by MQM and PML-N invited intense selling by retail and institutional investors on expectation of changes in PPP leadership. Moreover, investors remained concerned over deteriorating economic, security situation in the country throughout the session, he added.
Besides foreigners, the local banks, companies and NBFC also remained net buyers with $187 thousand, &1.24 million and $772 thousand, respectively.On the contrary, local mutual fund managers and individual investors offloaded shares worth of $2.92 million and $3.30 million, respectively.
Accordingly, the overall market capitalisation fell by Rs81 billion and stood at Rs2,574 billion. The day turnover further fell by 15 per cent to 152.04 million shares against 179.13 million shares changed hands on the weekend. Turnover in future market also declined to 2.22 million shares against 3.38 million shares traded on Friday.
Hasnain Asghar Ali at Aziz Fidahusein said that dull opening pushed the local equity market in the stagnation mode. Low volumes kept the index in negative zone. Couple of below expectation announcements added to the nervousness. Absence of decent quantum buyers reduced the intensity of decline, which otherwise would have been much higher.
What added to the nervousness was the Rawalpindi blast, and the index started melting and more then triple digit adjustment was soon witnessed. Caution is advised mainly in the high priced stocks for both trading and placement, while decent turnover should be awaited for taking short term trading positions, Ali added.
Out of total 403 actives, 298 stocks declined, 88 stocks advanced, while the value of remaining 17 stocks remained unchanged. Highest volumes were witnessed in JS Company at 15.94 million closing at Rs33.35 with a loss of Rs1.75, followed TRG Pakistan at 12.75 million closing at Rs2.15 with a loss of 47 paisa, Pak.PTA at 9.96 million closing at Rs6.63 with a loss of 47 paisa, Bank Al-Falah at 9.21 million closing at Rs12.81 with a loss of 72 paisa, and Pak.Prem Fund at 7.07 million closing at Rs6.32 with a loss of 18 paisa.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
