KARACHI – On Monday the Karachi share market shed 15 points on the back of, what the market observers viewed as investors’ concern for uncertain macroeconomic and a poor law and order situation in the city in the wake of country wide protests against power outrages.
First working day of the week saw share trading at the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) remained thin despite strong corporate earnings outlook and recovery in global stocks and commodities. “(The) stocks closed lower on investors’ concerns for uncertain macroeconomic situation and security concerns in the city on country wide protests for power outrages,” said Ahsan Mehanti, a senior stocks analyst and director at Arif Habib Securities. The benchmark 100-share index slid by 14.87 points or 0.10 percent to close at 14,511.54 points against Friday’s 14,526.41. The intraday high and low stood, respectively, at 14,560.01 and 14,492.73 points.
“Concerns for rising circular debt in the country’s energy sector, revenue loss to fertilizer sector on gas supply worries and pending Capital Gains Tax (CGT) collection issues played a catalyst role in bearish sentiment at KSE,” Mehanti said. The trading turnover marked improvement to stand at 81.83 million shares compared to 58.33 million of the previous trading session. In value terms, too, the share trading set in green zone and rose to Rs 3.15 billion from Rs 2.11 billion of the previous day. The market capitalization ended up in negative and shrank to Rs 3.707 trillion as against Rs 3.708 trillion of last week.
The free-float KSE-30 index also closed lower at 12,567.47 points against the previous 12,581.70 points, loosing 14.23 points. Bank Alfalah appeared as a volume leader by counting its traded shares at 19.440 million each priced at Rs 18.06 in the opening and Rs 18.89 in closing. Other nine well-performing scrips included DG Khan Cement, Lucky Cement, Maple Leaf Cement, Arif Habib Corp, Jahangir Siddiqui Company, Fatima Fertilizer, PTCL, Engro Foods and Nishat Mills Limited. In future contracts, the trading volumes nosedived to 7.6 million from 19.4 million of the previous session.-Paskitantoday
