Oil price fall drags Karachi stocks down

Karachi stock prices on Tuesday slipped as the investors opted for profit-taking after international crude prices dropped around 5.0 percent, dealers said.

“Market opened on a negative note led by declines in the index heavy E&Ps (exploration and production) after international crude dropped 5.0 percent overnight to near seven-year low,” said analyst Faisal Bilwani at Elixir Securities.

The KSE 100-share Index shed 61.83 points, or 0.19 percent, to close at 32,791.71 points. KSE 30-share Index fell 37.82 points, or 0.20 percent, to end at 19,208.43 points.

As many as 348 scrips were active; of which 156 advanced, 171 declined and 21 remained unchanged.

The ready market volumes stood at 192.635 million shares as compared to 155.397 million shares in the last trading session.

Dealers said equities closed marginally negative with the benchmark index trading volatile in a band of 300 points. 

They said activity noticeably improved as turnover saw a 25 percent increase compared to previous week’s average.

Going forward, analysts expected market to soon test the level of 33,000-point.

The dealers said a sharp drop in oil price rattled investors and pushed stocks lower across the board. Investors sold from the start of trading following a decision by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) last week not to cut production.

OGDC was down 1.44 percent, PSO dropped 0.58 percent and POL dipped 1.55 percent.

A report said exploration and production sector, however, saw local buying as most of the companies hit upon new discoveries.

An analyst at Global Securities said news that Mari Petroleum increased capital expenditure budget to $106 million for gas exploration that would shoot up gas flows helped the company’s stock hit upper circuit.

Profit-taking was witnessed at highs particularly in fertiliser sector, which recently came into limelight over the prospects of better gas availability.

Meanwhile, K-Electric was up 2.58 percent that topped the volume charts and closed higher on reports of possible recovery from one the major defaulters.

Companies, with major losses, included Nestle Pakistan down Rs300 to close at Rs8,300/share while Bata Pakistan shed Rs50 to end at Rs3,000/share.

Companies, reflecting highest gains, included Ferozsons Laboratory surging Rs36.63 to finish at Rs1,028.45/share while Mari Petroleum gained Rs27.09 to close at Rs568.90/share.

Highest volumes were witnessed in K-Electric with a turnover of 21.079 million shares. The scrip inched up 19 paisas to close at Rs7.56/share. It was followed by Jahangir Siddiqui Company Limited with a turnover of 15.587 million shares.

The scrip inched up 67 paisas to close at Rs19.50/share. Pak Elektron was the third with a turnover of 14.942 million shares.  It rose Rs2.28 paisas to finish at Rs66.53/share.