The KSE-100 index recovered initial losses today and closed down 27 points on account of rumored support of large government institutions in the second trading session. NBP stole the show, hitting its upper circuit breaker over reported interest by large government institutions followed by marginal gains in ABL and UBL. The index closed at 11,879.96 with a loss of 26.73 points, and total volume stood at 46,718,614 along with the total value of 1,929,083,505. Today’s session mirrored the market performance during the week as volatility was the main stay with merely 65 million shares traded. After gaining 26 points, the market continued on its downward trajectory to hit an intraday valley of 11,805. However, precipitous interest at lower levels restricted to index losses to merely 27 points during today’s session, whilst the weekly losses furthered to 178 points (1.47 percent).
Falling international oil prices kept oil stocks under pressure as OGDC finished the day down 1.2 percent followed by POL 0.9 percent and PPL 0.4 percent. Moody’s statement that Pakistan does not run the immediate risk of a cessation of foreign aid after the Bin Laden fiasco proved to be a morale booster for the second day running. Furthermore, investors welcomed the IMF’s decision to reschedule the meeting in Dubai after initially postponing and these talks are likely to dictate the future direction of the market.
While volumetric activity in ANL and JSCL and technical pullback, triggered by corporate support in NBP besides improving morale of investors, pulled back volumes while index heavyweights restricted the benchmark from undergoing an unprecedented decline during intraday trade supported a finish with minimal losses. The general sentiment, however, was edgy due to various issues on security and on the economic front, with budget around the corner likely to be followed by interest hike which means that options at local equity market are likely reduced.
Hasnain Asghar Ali at Aziz Fidahusein said that selective and calculated placement on dips will however keep the local bourse on a move at steady pace while speculative activity in singled out stocks and sectors will continue to provide short term trading activity to resident participants.
