KARACHI, June 11: Shares at the Karachi Stock Market gained 42.76 points on Monday to close at 13,601.46 points, which represented a slight recovery from the heavy fall last Friday. The rumour mongers continued to churn out varying views on the petition filed by a member of the Parliament in the Courts against the Presidential Ordinance that granted amnesty of “no questions to be asked” on the sources of funds to be invested in equities over the next two years. The issue had frightened the investors who went into panic selling on Friday.
Investors also watched the Rupee falling to its all time low of 94.26/34 against the dollar. There were no triggers that could keep stock prices up, which pushed retail investors to the sidelines, resulting in the turnover on Monday at nearly half of the last session.
Mohammad Sohail at Topline Securities observed that the volume at the exchange had dipped to a 20 week low. The foreign outflow reported by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan stood in the huge sum of $69.44 million. Though much of it represented the payment in settlement of sale proceeds of majority shares in Hub Power Company by local groups, the foreign fund managers also decided to wait for stocks to fall further for a better bargain. An analyst thought that the prolonged stagnation and low volume in a falling market did not spell well for the market. The absence of retail investors saw second and third tier stocks almost absent from the active list. Those had been in the fore-front of the previous prolonged bull market. One equity dealer suggested that the market could continue the roller coaster ride until the passage of the Finance Bill, 2012.
Traded volume registered a massive fall from 124.437 million shares on Friday to 60.206 million shares on Monday. The market capitalization also stood down from Rs3,468.388bn to Rs3,471.924bn on Monday, representing a decline of Rs3.536bn.
Of the 131 advancing scrips, Rafhan Maize increased by Rs130.18 to close at Rs3,093.65, followed by UniLever Pak that gained Rs39.16 to close at Rs7,247.66. Among the 129 stocks that finished in the red territory, UniLever Food was the biggest loser of Rs110.00 to close at Rs2,762.50. Bata Pak closed at Rs639.56 after a decrease of Rs14.31.
On the active list, Jah Sidd Co gained 56 paisa to close at Rs14.49 while Nishat Power Ltd went up by 46 paisa to close at Rs14.87. PTCL went from the opening rate of Rs14.38 to close at Rs14.37 after losing one paisa. DGK Cement registered a gain of 42 paisa to close at Rs40.24 while in a similar manner after gaining 9 paisa, Azgard Nine closed at Rs6.06. Nishat Chun closed at Rs15.10 from Rs14.93 after gaining 17 paisa. Adding three paisa, JS Investment meanwhile closed at 7.91. Lotte Pak lost five paisa to close at Rs7.66 while after a gain of 77 paisa Engro Foods closed at Rs64.50. Opening at Rs108.44, Engro Corp lost two paisa and closed at Rs108.42.