KARACHI – The gloomy outlook on important economic and financial issues, the poor security situation and negative sentiment over the growing concerns of the tough business environment have apparently impacted on the morale of investors, thus forcing those on the market to be cautious and watch for fresh placements.
The market lacked luster with low volumes and limited volatility, thus not offering little incentive for trading, while low volumes led to stagnation in high priced stocks. Besides aggravating pressure, the benchmark did witness a meltdown in values and a wider decline in various high and consistent dividend yielding stocks along with various volume leaders.
The KSE-100 index closed at 11,873.28 with a loss of 12.36 points and total volume stood at 48,123,309 alongside the total value of 2,015,519,900. The KSE-30 index lost 71.63 points to close at 11,558.49 and the All Share index closed at 8,319.70 after losing 8.94 points. A total of 111 scrips advanced, 142 declined and the value of 102 remain unchanged out of a total of 355 scrips traded. Top scrips were Pace (Pak) Ltd, Lotte Pakistan PTA, Meezan Bank, Arif Habib Corp, and Bank of Punjab.
With technical indicators suggesting an extended decline mainly due to low volumes, price erosion in frontline speculative stocks, intra-day decline in high yielding stocks may provide various trading and placement opportunities, while selling in certain stocks trading at high multiples. It is indicated those dependant on speculative support for sustaining the prevailing levels, along with some facing issues emerging from rising input cost and low export and local demand growth, might be forced to be cautious.
Hasnain Asghar Ali at Aziz Fidahusein said that budget leaks might dominate proceedings, wherein certain sectors are likely to get concessions, if there are any in offing. The bourse may react accordingly. A lenient view on the Capital Gains Tax (CGT), if it is brought under consideration, will allow the local bourse to improve both on values and depth, he added.
