KARACHI, Aug 23: The talk of martial law dominated the trading on the share market on Monday as investors could not precisely decide how to react to it amid strong protests by political leaders against the demand.
The cautious market reaction was a bit surprising, some analysts said. “On the record books the stock market posted tremendous growth under the army rules as it showed in previous martial laws after initial weakness.”
The benchmark KSE 100-index shed 48.26 points at 9,812.10, while its junior partner the KSE 30-share index was off by 100.24 points at 9,706.73 as leading base shares, MCB Bank, OGDC, National Bank, PSO, Shell Pakistan and some others fell across the board on active selling.
“I don’t hear the sound of the foot yet in the backdrop of a bad economy devastated by the floods, said Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Investment. “Investors should share the agony caused by the floods to the millions ignoring the whispering of martial law for the time being”.
“But it is the time to pray for the sustainable daily volume figures on which the future of the Pakistan’s premier bourse is hinged,” he said and appeals to the KSE board to let the cat of MTS (badla) out of bag as early as possible.
“Rising flood water and heating up of the political scenario adds to the prevailing uncertainty on the share market,” another analyst Hasnain Asghar Ali said and added the value of traded shares fall to a lowest figure in the recent trading history.An idea of investor apathy may well be had from the fact that no one among them was inclined to take even a calculated financial risk in the prevailing situation, another analyst Samar Iqbal said.
Minus signs dominated the list under the lead of Fazal Textiles and Siemens Pakistan, off by Rs15 and Rs6.88 followed by MCB Bank, Indus Dyeing, Engro Chemical, Shell Pakistan, PSP, Attock Refinery, Mari Gas, and Attock Petroleum, which suffered fall ranging from Rs3.07 to Rs5.37.
But some leading shares managed to put on fresh gains under the lead of Nestle Pakistan and Rafhan Maize, up by Rs65.10 and Rs46.74. Other good gains included Ferozsons Lab, Millat Tractors, Service Industries and Unilever Pakistan.
Trading volume totalled 50.834m shares as compared to 43m shares at the weekend as gainers trailed far behind the losers at 142 to 181, with 18 shares holding on to the last levels.The active list was topped by the Silkbank, up 23 paisa at Rs2.88 on 20m shares followed by Lotte Pakistan, easy by seven paisa at Rs80.03 on 5m shares, Arif Habib Securities, lower 17 paisa at Rs25.57 on 2m shares, D.G. Khan Cement, steady by 11 paisa at Rs25.22 also on 2m shares, United Bank, off Rs1.04 at Rs55.87 on 2m shares, National Bank, off 22 paisa at Rs65.71 on 1m shares and JS & Co, easy by 16 paisa at Rs10.84 on 0.972m shares.
WorldCall Telecom followed them, steady by six paisa at Rs2.66 on 0.945m shares, Attock Refinery, up 81 paisa at Rs82.93 on 0.879m shares and Fauji Fertiliser Bin Qasim, lower by 55 paisa at Rs27.55 on 0.837m shares.
FUTURE CONTRACTS: D.G. Khan Cement led the list of actives, up 28 paisa at Rs25.31 on 0.287m shares followed by MCB Bank, off Rs3.36 at Rs192.47 on 0.190m shares and National Bank, easy by 26 paisa at Rs65.79 on 0.116m shares.
Nishat Mills followed them, up 40 paisa at Rs44.13 on 98,500 shares and Azgard Nine, easy by five paisa at Rs10.04 on 83,000 shares.
DEFAULTER COMPANIES: The trading activity on this counter was slow in the absence of fresh buying offers and the weakness of the ready counter.
Quice Foods was an exception, which came in for stray support and was marked up by five paisa at Rs195 on 22,500 shares followed by Mian Textiles, steady also by five paisa at Rs0.38 on 9,999 shares and Crescent Jute,easy by one paisa at Rs1.13 on 6,552 shares.