A lacklustre session

The Karachi share market witnessed a lacklustre session on the first day under the shadow of new freezing at August 27 closing prices with thin volumes and the KSE-100 index registered a ''forced'' rally of 58.85 points to close at 9,203.78 points level, analysts said. The KSE-30 index gained 37.98 points and settled at 10,182.18 points.
The market started in an aggressively positive mood and hit 9,246.27 points intra-day high level, up by 114 points (1.3 percent). However, it could not sustain that level due to foreign selling mainly in OGDC and NBP, that pushed these stocks to Wednesday''s closing levels.
The net selling by foreign investors was recorded at $3.987 million as they sold 7.521 million shares against their buying of 3.281 million shares on Thursday. Trading activity remained thin as the ready market volume declined to 55.789 million shares as compared to 94.427 million shares on Wednesday while the futures market turnover decreased to 20.048 million shares against 25.717 million shares.
The overall market capitalisation surged by Rs 21 billion to Rs 2.881 trillion. Out of the total 263 active scrips, 133 closed in the positive while 130 remained unchanged.
NIB Bank was the best performer with 5.568 million shares and gained Re. 0.07 to close at Rs 8.52. MCB Bank also remained active and increased by Rs 4.25 to close at Rs 243.00 with 2.899 million shares. In the cement sector, Zeal Pak gained Re. 0.09 to close at Rs 1.25 with 5.564 million shares. However, DG Khan Cement, after witnessing an intra-day high of Rs 40.75, closed at the Wednesday''s level of Rs 39.28 with 2.051 million shares.
OGDC hit an intra-day high of Rs 99.50 and closed at the Wednesday''s level of Rs 97.93 with 3.258 million shares. PPL, however, gained Re. 0.30 to close at Rs 210.00 with 1.552 million shares. Nishat Mills increased by Re. 0.06 to close at Rs 46.77 with 3.749 million shares.
PTCL closed at Wednesday''s level of Rs 31.50 with 1.730 million shares. Asim Textile closed at Rs 1.50 without any change with 1.600 million shares. TRG Pakistan also remained unchanged at Rs 3.82 with 1.215 million shares. Arif Habib Investment and Unilever were the highest gainers and gained Rs 70.30 and Rs 20.00 to close at Rs 80.30 and Rs 2360.00.
Ovais Siddiqui, Head of International Sales at First Capital Equities said that under the shadow of the new freezing at the close of Wednesday''s prices, the market witnessed a lacklustre first day with just 56 million shares changing hands and registered a ''forced'' rally of just 59 points or 0.6 percent. It kicked off in an aggressively positive mood and scored an intra-day high of 114 points (1.3 percent) within the first fifteen minutes.
Then came the onslaught of foreign selling in OGDC and NBP that immediately pushed these stocks to Wednesday''s closing as their prices now could not go below this level. In sympathy with them, the whole market underwent correction to fall off to intra-day low of 17 points. The level of depression in OGDC and NBP was so severe that these stocks could not take off from their Wednesday''s closing except for a few minutes in early trading.
It seems that local investors have also joined these foreigners in dumping these stocks as the apparent selling pressure could further pull down their prices substantially. In such depressing moments, only MCB stood out and held out well against tremendous bearish pressure.
Ahsan Mehanti at Shehzad Chamdia Securities said that fresh buying was witnessed at the local bourses as price floor fixed on ready/future market. Investors expected positive results from meetings between SECP and Stock Exchange directors to stabilise the market.