Bears seared the local bourse’s floor with a precipitous drop in the benchmark KSE-100 index by 174points in the wee hours of trading. Albeit trading commenced on a weaker note, rumours of Engro initiating yet another urea price hike kept investor’s interest alive in FFC and kept the overall market afloat. However, persistent disinvestment by foreign investors amidst economic concerns, news of National Power International intending to liquidate its 17 per cent stake in HUBC and lack of impetus including confirmation of urea price hike crippled the sentiments as the index faltered sharply.
Profit taking was witnessed today at inflated levels as KSE-100 index closed down 174 points at 11,188 level with 30m shares traded today, down 36 per cent from yesterday. FII’s selling in index heavy weights continued to haunt local investors despite attractive earning growth of 15 per cent and dividend yield of 8.5 per cent for 2012. Tension between Judiciary and the government on non-implementation of former decisions is expected to enhance political noise in the country before the upcoming Senate elections due in March 2012.
FII’s were rumored sellers in energy scripts while locals were seen accumulating banking and fertiliser scripts. Although red blanketed most of blue chip stocks, selling pressure in index heavy OGDC made matters worse. Though systematic risks loom large, further pull back represents opportunity for re-entry into selected stocks, said Salman Vidhani, Senior Investment Analyst at HMFS. The KSE 30 index closed at 10206.75 levels with the loss of 152.39 points, while All Share index lost 113.08 points to close at 7755.65 levels. Total 85 scrips advanced 116 declined and 90 remain unchanged out of total 291 scrips traded.
