Pakistan's KSE inches down as floods gain in power

Equities at Pakistan's Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) witnessed yet another bearish session on Wednesday as its main index inched down after showing promise in the morning.

The benchmark KSE 100-Index dropped by 0.17 percent or 16.64 points to close at 9,875.68 levels, KSE 30-Index inched down by 0. 01 percent or 1.07 points to end at 9,782.52 levels, and KSE All Share Index dipped by 0.14 percent or 9.94 points to finish the day at 6,914.06 levels.

The market started the day on a positive note with foreign investors and local institutions took interest in the oil sector which helped bulls to take an early lead as the main index traveled deep into the green zone where during the first couple of hours it achieved the intraday high of 10,001.45.

However, the euphoria once again proved short-lived as local individual investors once again came with selling strategy in action as they sold holdings in fertilizer and telecommunication sectors that dragged the main index back into the red zone and the key index hit the lowest level of the day of 9,860.53.

Analysts said that investors are edgy over the economic condition of the country and they also want to save their money as tide is rising fast towards the southern part of the country. As the United Nations termed Pakistan floods the bigger challenge than Haiti earthquake and Tsunami faced by the world in recent times, people are living lives in a precarious situation which has dented an agriculture-based Pakistani economy quite hard. They further stated that amid all the negativities, investors are in search of a way out and therefore they have been selling their holdings.

Syed Faran Rizvi, Director SMH Financial Solution told Xinhua that market had become overvalued and a technical correction was overdue at the KSE.

He further stated that negative implications shown by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank (WB) about Pakistan's economy have also left investors jittery and they are looking to stay away from a crisis-like situation of 2005.

As per the figures released by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited (NCCPL), the foreign investors, despite all of the bearish trend at the KSE, continued to shop big as they net bought shares worth 232.619 million Pakistani rupees or 2.727 million U.S. dollars on Tuesday.

After showing improvement for couple of days, market volumes once again plunged considerably to 61.640 million shares on Wednesday as against the turnovers of 94.213 million shares it recorded the other day, thus showing a decline by 32.573 million shares.

Hub Power Company was the top traded scrip of the day with trading of 8.368 million shares, followed by Arif Habib Securities Limited, Jahangir Siddiqui Company Limited, Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited, and Lotte Pakistan PTA Limited with turnovers of 5.610 million, 4.707 million, 3.499 million, and 3.110 million shares respectively.

In broader market, a total of 375 issues traded hands during the course of the day where prices of 180 companies slipped, 163 surged, while rates of 32 other scrips ended unchanged.

Source: Xinhua