After nine weeks' continuous winning streak the share market last week for the first time finished with losses owing to selling pressure from investors to settle their future contracts coupled with bomb blast and nation-wide strike.
Market behaviour throughout the week was quite directionless with wide oscillating movements being witnessed. The index saw highly erratic movement, going down 355 points in one day and then recovering around 250 points the other day, with investors playing on both side of the fence. Thursday's suicide bomb blast and Friday's strike further distorted the sentiment of the market.
The index closed at 11415.39 points, down 0.35 percent from the last week close of 11,547. Average volume decreased by 20 percent to 441.2 million shares during the week.
Farheen Saquib, research analyst at Alfalah Securities, said that bears completely took over the market on Monday, pulling down the index by around 355 points. This was the first huge slide of the market after the March 2005 crisis. THE market did open positively but heavy stampede by bears did not allow the bulls to stand anywhere.
The bulls again took the market with storm on Tuesday with heavy buying being witnessed across the board. Again, the E&P sector came into limelight and remained the driving force behind the index surge with POL, PPL and OGDC increasing 3.5 percent, 3.9 percent and 2.7 percent, respectively.
NBP remained the top performer, closing at its upper circuit limit on news that it plans to sell its holding of Bank Al-Jazeera. Cement sector followed suit and rose accordingly. NML even closed at its upper circuit limit on news that the EU would consider reducing antidumping duty on imports of bed linen. Some second-tier stocks also showed activity with KESC and Bosicor closing at their upper limit on the back of their good financial results announced for the half year.
Wednesday was the most volatile day as the index first increased by around 151 points and then went down by around 300 points and finally managed to close up 17 points. Again, the E&P and the banking sectors played a major part in the rollercoaster drive of the market. Almost all major shares touched their lower circuit limit but late recovery allowed them to close higher than their intra-day lows. Cement sector closed in green zone with DGKC, Lucky and Maple closing up 2.9 percent, 0.4 percent and 0.7 percent, respectively. After a long time, fertiliser sector was the top performer with FFBL, FFC and Engro showing an increase of 4.9 percent, 2.4 percent and 4 percent, respectively.
PPTA showed healthy volume and closed up on the higher limit on announcement of cash dividend by the company. Thursday's bomb blast in the morning confused the investors' sentiment. The market remained range-bound with low volumes in the morning, but late selling, especially in the banking sector, allowed the index to close lower 92 points. Once again, fertiliser sector performed well, with FFBL, FFC and Engro closing up 4.1 percent, 4.2 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively. ICI's lower-than-expected results made the scrip to close at its lower limit.
On Friday, the index closed up down 33 points at 11415 level. Activity was quite lifeless in the initial session due to the countrywide strike, but did pick up in the second half. Cement sector was the star performer of the day with DGKC, LUCK, MLCF closing up 3.5 percent, 5 percent and 3 percent, respectively. Both Sui's even out performed closing on their upper limit.
Saima Naz, research analyst at WE Financial Services, said that the market looked heavy. Sentiment did remain positive but the market was at a point where it was very sensitive to even slight negative news.
Jawad Haleem, research analyst at Atlas Investment Bank said that the reason for the decline in volumes could be attributed to paralysed city because of strikes, which restricted the access of the investors to reach the ring. The market seemed better as the week witnessed some correction, and in the next week some positive outcomes were likely out of the US President and Pakistan President's meetings, coupled with some announcements from the privatisation of PSO and PPL.
Banking giant NBP might remained in the lime light over its expected result announcement.
Comments
Comments are closed.