KARACHI – The local bourse saw another day of lackluster activity triggered by mounting political uncertainty on the local and international front. Investors were wary to invest and traded, as PML-N’s agenda implementation deadline neared the finish line.
Furthermore, US-Pak diplomatic ties remained on a brink following the recent diplomatic row of Raymond Davis, while deteriorating situation in the Middle East spurred fear of foreign selling. News, over the weekend, regarding approval of the Margin Trading System (MTS) by the Security Exchange Commission Pakistan (SECP) was unable to protect the market sentiment and the benchmark index dwindled 76 points during the day, marked by fairly low volumes.
Lack of triggers and foreign investors flow has seemingly hit market performance. The KSE-100 index closed at 11964.68 levels, while the total volume and total value stood at 36,961,658 and 1,811,100,156 respectively. The KSE-30 index lost 88.82 points to close at 11,527.84, while the All Share index closed 8,400.22 levels after losing 50.21 points.
Activity remained dull as only 81 million shares were traded, a 21 week low. PTCL closed the day 1.4 percent higher amid rumors that it may sell its stake in Ufone. The Market Capitalisation of KSE stood at Rs. 3,236.93 billion, i.e. $37.85 billion, while KSE’s future volume stood at 1.48 million shares. The future value and future spread were Rs 131.09 million and -9.54 percent respectively. Out of total 654 scrips, 101 scrips advanced, 169 declined and 384 remain unchanged.
Unilever Pakistan, Dawood Hercules Chemicals, Media Times, Standard Chartered Bank, International Industries, Pakistan Cables and Attock Petroleum ended the day as top gainers. Similarly, top losers in today’s session were Askari Bank, Bata Pakistan, Kohinoor Energy, Indus Motor Company, Packages, Worldcall Telecom and Colgate Palmolive (Pakistan).
