Unbroken spell of ennui on KSE

KARACHI (November 15 2008): The Karachi share market witnessed another dull session on Friday and the benchmark KSE-100 index remained unchanged at 9,184.09 points level due to investors concerns over the increasing discount rate and issue of floor mechanism. Trading activity further shrank as the ready market volume declined to 57,920 shares as compared to 66,600 shares traded a day earlier.

No trading activity was witnessed at the futures counter. Trading took place in 24 scrips, out of which five closed in positive and five in negative while the value of 14 scrips remained unchanged. National Assets was the overall market volume leader with 14,500 shares and gained Re. 0.08 to close at Re. 0.50. Mukhtar Textile closed at Re. 0.54, up by Re. 0.01 with 11,000 shares. Nimir Resins remained unchanged at Rs 5.05 with 10,000 shares. Haydery Const lost Re. 0.02 to close at Rs 1.03 with 5,500 shares.

Gharibwal Cement declined by Re. 0.42 to close at Rs 16.20 with 4000 shares. Tri-Star Power remained unchanged at Rs 1.64 with 3,000 shares. PSO closed at Rs 267.49 without any change with 1,000 shares. NIB Bank remained unchanged at Rs 8.45 with 1,000 shares. Habib-ADM Limited gained Re. 0.52 to close at Rs 10.20 with 1,000 shares. East West Life Insurance closed at Rs 7.00 without any change with 1,000 shares.

Crescent Sugar and Habib-ADM Limited were the highest gainers and gained Re. 1.00 and Re. 0.52 to close at Rs 9.55 and Rs 10.20 respectively while Pak Datacom and Sitara Energy were the worst losers and lost Rs 2.00 and Re. 0.61 to close at Rs 46.00 and Rs 19.75 respectively.

Ahsan Mehanti at Shehzad Chamdia Securities said that selling activity continued as discount rates raised and investors uncertain over market floor unfreeze and government bail out of capital market by injecting Rs 50 billion. Investors awaited outcome of board of directors meeting with SECP to discuss market floor. Foreign selling continues as a result of downgrading of Pakistan foreign currency rating by a foreign credit rating agency.