KSE 100 index closed flattish at 11,311 levels after the finance minister rejected the idea of withdrawing Capital Gains Tax (CGT) or bringing it under the Presumptive Tax Regime (PTR). Volumes once again painted a very grim picture with 20 million shares changing hands. Furthermore, a report citing American officials as saying that US-Pakistan relationship is in troubled waters dented the already beleaguered sentiment.
FFC closed in the ‘green’ up 0.7 per cent after FFC and FFBL increased the price of urea by
Rs.100/bag to Rs.1580/bag today, but declining urea and DAP off take numbers in November weighed in on fertilizer advance as FFBL dipped 0.94 per cent and ENGRO closed down 0.33 per cent. Almost all major Oil and Banking stocks witnessed dismal volumes and remained out of favor with investors. Investors seem to be on a long vacation as volume shrank to merely 19.58m shares with the index remaining almost at the same level. In the light of fragile economic conditions investors remained at bay. ‘We believe today’s speech by Mr. Zardari will set the tone for the rest of the current regime’s tenure,’ said Bilal Asif at HMFS. Among the top ten stocks only four stocks crossed over the million share trading mark. The volume attrition continues to threaten the viability of stock punters and brokers. We firmly believe the stock market has incorporated the futuristic risk, hence the investors’ sentiment seems fairly justified, he added. As soon as the concerns related to economic concerns are addressed, the benchmark performance may improve accordingly. The valuations at local benchmark are fairly attractive, but macro economic menace has taken the investors away.
The KSE 100 index closed at 11311.38 levels after gaining 1.03 points. The KSE 30 index closed at 10275.60 levels with the loss of 16.98 points, while All Share index gained 0.43 points to close at 7826.66 levels. Total 86 scrips advanced 104 declined and 110 remain unchanged out of total 300 scrips traded.
