Anxiety prevails at Karachi Stock Exchange

Fear and anxiety continue to prevail at the local bourse as KSE100 plunged by 369 points to close just above 11,000 mark. Even as most Asian stock markets stabilized after plummeting in early trading today, the KSE100 failed to sustain brief pull back. International oil price also dipped to $79.5 per bbl as fears of US economy sliding into a recession grew stronger whilst the European debt crisis further dampened the sentiment.
The KSE 100 index closed at 11,034.92 levels with the loss of 369.25 points, while KSE 30 index lost 407.97 points to close at 10,407.25 levels. All Share index closed at 7,667.80 levels after losing 244.83 points. Total 54 scrips advanced 193 declined and 79 remained unchanged out of total 326 scrips traded.
However, recent sell-off at KSE has propped up buying opportunities at lower levels for local institution and savvy investors as volumes witnessed a slight recovery. Both Pakistan Petroleum Limited and Pakistan State Oil, despite stellar earnings announcement for Financial Year 2011, faltered to selling pressure. As global markets stabilise, recovery is bound happen, said Salman Vidhani at HMFS.
PPL announced below market consensus FY11 EPS of Rs26.30 along with a surprise dividend of Rs2 which led PPL to close down 4.1 per cent. Engro remained out of favour and hit its lower circuit breaker over news that Qadirpur gas field will remain shut for 20 days. However, Engro later confirmed that plant shut down will not result in any unanticipated losses and in fact was already a part of their agreement. PSO also announced its FY11 result posting EPS of Rs86.17 beating analyst forecast, but the payout of Rs2 failed to excite investors and PSO slipped 4.5 per cent.
Major volume leaders for all shares in today’s session were AABS, AACIL, ABL, ABOT, and ACPL. Similarly, major market movers at KSE 100 index included OGDC, PPL, MCB, and FFC. The major losers at KSE 100 index were PTEC, SCBPL, LOTPTA, MDTL, and JSCL.