Monday, first day of the week, saw thin trading activities at the Karachi stocks market with the benchmark index shedding 52.39 points due to the investors’ concern for internal and external negatives.
The KSE 100-share index closed lower by 0.37 percent at 13,990.38 points against 14,042.77 points of Friday last weeks. The index hit the intraday high and low of 14,064.73 and 13,891.49 points, respectively.
“(The) stocks closed lower post quarter end earnings announcements at KSE amid consolidation in stocks across the board,” viewed Ashen Mehanti, a director at Arif Habib Securities.
The senior market analyst said that the benchmark moved in a narrow range amid thin trade as the trading volumes at the ready-counter was recorded at 164.070 million, compared to 196.158 million of last session.
The trading value also dropped to Rs 3.863 billion from the previous Rs 5.653 billion. The market capitalization also depleted to Rs 3.574 trillion from 3.587 trillion of Friday.
In total 369 scrips were traded of which 149 ended up in positive, 156 in negative and 64 as unchanged.
“Concerns loomed over gas shortfall for fertilizer, textile and power sectors,” the analyst said.
Other factors that, Mehanti said, played as a catalyst in Monday’s bearish sentiments at the KSE include rising circular debt issues in energy sector, political uncertainty, deteriorating security situation in the city and limited foreign interest after uncertain global stocks on Eurozone debt crises.
Jahangir Siddiqui Company appeared as a volume leader with 16.270 million of its shares traded. The company bore a 0.99-paisa loss in terms of share pricing that stood at Rs 15.92 and Rs 14.93 at the session’s opening and closing, respectively.
The future market nosedived to 7.443 million shares from 24.011 million of the last week. The day marked 31 scrips appearing as loser 63 as gainers and zero as unchanged.
