KARACHI: The Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) underwent profit-taking on Thursday with the benchmark KSE-100 Index closing 37 points down at the 10,905 level. Imposition of the 10 percent flood surcharge tax by the government and 15.33 percent CPI for October dampened the morale of the investors.
Volumes remained sluggish and declined by 43 percent to stand at 125 million shares. The second-tier stocks remained in the limelight as TRG closed the day as the volume leader with 17 million shares.
The KSE-100 Index closed at 10905.24 points with a loss of 36.70 points and the KSE-30 Index dwindled by 45.33 points and closed at 10489.05 points. The all-shares index suffered a loss of 21.59 points and closed at 7644.57. Out of 397 scrips, 175 gained, 194 declined and 28 remain unchanged while total trades stood at 68,159.
Market capitalisation stood at 2,980.43 billion while the total volume was 125.23 million and the total ready market value stood at Rs 4.22 billion. Sectors likely to be affected by the reformed GST, mainly the exporting concerns textiles and cements, led the bearish spell. Various other factors aggravated the sell-off besides the RGST impact.
Low volumes and absence of buyers on intervals added to the panic and forced stocks to lose values at a higher pace. However, swaps towards other stocks and sectors restricted the benchmark index from an unprecedented decline.
Taxation phobia, which is likely to have political fallout, high inflation numbers and the rising government borrowings signaling towards an inevitable increase in local interest rates kept nerves on the higher side. However, implementation of the proposed taxation measures will not only pave way for the release of the pending tranches withheld by the IMF but would also probably support the approval of new program from the lending organisation.
Although rising commodity prices mainly oil continues to pose a threat to the fragile economy, the trend will certainly benefit certain local stocks. Various swaps within sectors and stocks under taken by the corporate participants besides keeping the shade of brown (a mix of red and green) alive, did provide direction to an otherwise stray market, but low volatility kept the participation limited.
“The only hope is the early introduction of leverage product to give the current run-up back by increasing the turnover generated in the main board stocks’ sustainability,” said Hasnain Asghar Ali of the Aziz Fidahusein and Company.
Sluggish activity at LSE
LAHORE: Activity on the Lahore Stock Exchange (LSE) remained range-bound, with a decline in the volume on Thursday.
The LSE 25-shares index added 2.26 points to close at 3,414.17 against its opening at 3,411.91 levels. The volume of the market remained 6.11 million shares, which was 4.73 million shares less than Wednesday’s turnover of 10.85 million shares.
Out of 119 active scrips, 24 went up, 39 declined and 56 showed no change in their opening values. Arif Habib Securities was the major gainer and volume leader of the day and with 1.33 million shares turnover it added Rs 1.18 to close at Rs 25.64 against its opening at Rs 24.46.
Lotte Pakistan PTA was the second volume leader with 0.88 million shares volume and fell Rs 0.14 to close at Rs 11.71 against its opening at Rs 11.85. Feroze Sons Laboratories with 1,400 shares turnover was the major loser. It contracted by Rs 4.17 to close at Rs 81 against its opening at Rs 85.17. Staff Report
