KARACHI, July 18: Trading volume at the Karachi stock market plunged to just 90 million shares on Monday, as investors remained on the sidelines. Euphoria built up over Saturday’s meeting of the government with the SECP, the KSE and bankers evaporated, as it was seen to have produced no concrete results. In the last half-an-hour of trade, the bearish rally intensified as confusion over the COT issue was confounded since brokers, traders and investors poured over a new notice released by the stock exchange, of which everybody made various interpretations and pointed to loopholes.

The KSE-100 index plunged by 98.26 points to 7437.55 on Monday, from 7535.81 on Friday. Trading in 90 million shares on Monday was the lowest since April 12 this year, when the business had dropped to 63 million shares. The Monday’s volume was down from Friday’s turnover of 119 million shares and only a quarter of the average one year daily turnover, which works out at 342 million shares.

The market was expecting some sort of a way out from the liquidity crunch when Advisor to the Prime Minister on Finance Dr Salman Shah was scheduled to hold talks with banks, brokers and the regulator. “But all that happened was the formation of a ‘committee’, which hardly made matters any better,” said an irate stock broker. The government was said to be looking beyond margin financing and it asked for a comprehensive report to be prepared on the long-term development of the capital market. The 10-member committee already entrusted with the task, in the leadership of banker Shaukat Tareen, was extended to 14 members with one new member drawn each from the SECP, CDC, Mutual Funds Association of Pakistan and NIT.

While already depressed, the market got another shock when the KSE released a notice to all members saying that the KSE Board was to follow the SECP directive to cap COT value at Rs12 billion in seven scrips -– DGK, Hub Power, National Bank, OGDC, POL, PSO and PTCL. However, the board laid down a new procedure made effective from Monday. It stated that (1) system would freeze total outstanding COT positions to Rs12 billion irrespective of individual scrip; (2) in order to arrive at allowable value on daily basis, after the COT release session, the system would take the COT unreleased value and minus it from Rs12 billion; (3) the system would allow the execution of value arrived in step 2 on first come first basis, however, during the pre-open session system would reach orders on the basis of equal allocation and, (4) since the system would work on first come first basis during the continuous trading session, therefore, in order to provide a level-playing field to the market participants, the “cross priority over queue within the same house” functionality of trading system would be revoked.

On the trading floor, Siemens Engineering led the market downturn, recording plunge of Rs30 to Rs591 and PSO ex-dividend fell by Rs10.60 at Rs378.50. Other scrips that suffered sharp pruning included Mari Gas ex-dividend, dipping by Rs9.40, Shell Pakistan ex-dividend, down by Rs5.25, Sapphire Textile, lower by Rs4.70, Pakistan Petroleum, down by Rs4.20, Bolan Casting, easier by Rs3.40, Indus Motors, pruning earlier gains by Rs2.75, Jahangir Siddiqui Capital Markets, down Rs3.10, Askeri Leasing, down Rs2.15, and Arif Habib Securities, lower by Rs5.10. Nestle Milk Pack lost Rs3.95 without any turnover.

On the rising side, Pak Cables and I.G.I Insurance, each recorded a gain of Rs5 to close at Rs205 and Rs225, respectively. Rafhan Best Foods also rose by Rs5 to end at Rs290, but without any turnover. Union Bank was up by Rs2.15 at Rs45.30 on 3.2 million shares, Fazal Textile rose by Rs3.70 at Rs82.70 on 100 shares, Gul Ahmed Textile higher by Rs2.75 at Rs59.70 on 1,400 shares, Callmate Telips up by Rs2.25 at Rs47.55 on 1.7 million shares, and PNSC gained Rs2.40 at Rs105.90 on 10,800 shares.

A total of 173 shares lost value, compared to 110 gainers with 23 stocks ending unchanged.

Like the last session, Fauji Fertilizer Bin Qasim topped the list of actives, closing at Rs29.60 on 14.8 million shares. It was followed by PTCL which finished at Rs63.70 on 9.9 million shares, and OGDC closed at Rs105.85 with trading in 8.3 million shares. Other actives included National Bank with 6.7 million shares, Union Bank 3.2 million shares, Nishat Mills 2.3 million shares, Maple Leaf 2.3 million shares, Pakistan Oilfields 6.9 million shares, and Pakistan Petroleum with 7.2 million shares.

FORWARD COUNTER: Pakistan Petroleum July contract closed at Rs188.80 with trading in 13.9 million shares, down by Rs4.55, followed by Fauji Fertilizer Bin Qasim lower by Rs1.40 at Rs29.75 on 8.9 million shares. Pakistan Oilfields finished easier by Rs1.50 at Rs306.50 on 4.5 million shares, PTCL down by Rs1.70 at Rs63.80 on 4.3 million shares, and OGDCL saw its closing price in July futures taking a dip of Rs2.25 at Rs106.05 with 4.2 million shares traded.

DEFAULTER COS: Most scrips on this counter also shed values, including Crescent Stand Bank, down 40 paisa; Ghandhara Industries, lower by 55 paisa, Bela Automotive, eased by 35 paisa; and S.S. Oil, down 60 paisa.