Stock market rangebound

The Karachi share market witnessed a rangebound session on Monday with the KSE-100 index oscillating between 15,482.84 points intra-day high and 15,369.86 points intra-day low levels as the investors took cautious stance following failure of MQM/PPP power sharing deal.
However the index managed to close in positive at 15,437.84 points level, marginally up by 6.95 points. The KSE-30 index gained 24.12 points and settled at 18,816.88 points level.
The market started on a negative note as the investors took cautious stance from the opening of the market and avoided taking fresh positions due to some negative developments on political front, analysts said.
Trading activity further shrank as the ready market volume declined to 225.625 million shares as compared to 245.111 million shares traded on Friday. The futures market turnover decreased to 55.662 million shares against 64.860 million shares previously.
The overall market capitalisation slightly increased by Rs 1 billion to Rs 4.723 trillion. Trading took place in 332 scrips, out of which 169 scrips closed in negative and 132 scrips closed in positive while the value of 31 scrips remained unchanged.
BoP was the overall volume leader with 20.544 million shares however lost Rs 3.05 to close at Rs 60.55 followed by Fauji Fertiliser Bin Qasim, which declined by 0.05 to close at Rs 40.90 with 17.273 million shares.
Pace (Pak) Limited gained Rs 1.20 to close at Rs 37.45 with 15.908 million shares. Hub Power increased by Rs 1.35 to close at Rs 34.25 with 13.057 million shares. Arif Habib Sec surged by Rs 1.75 to close at Rs 184.10 with 12.076 million shares.
In cement sector, Lucky Cement increased by Rs 0.95 to close at Rs 145.20 however DG Khan Cement declined by Rs 1.40 to close at Rs 116.50. UBL remained active and gained Rs 4.40 to close at Rs 168.90. Norrie Textile surged by Rs 1.00 to close at Rs 5.20. In the E&P sector, POL declined by Rs 3.40 to close at Rs 389.50.
Rafhan Maize and Dawood Equities were the highest gainers and gained Rs 135.05 and Rs 29.50 to close at Rs 2836.15 and Rs 39.50 respectively while Hinopak Motor and AKD Capital Limited were the highest losers and lost Rs 24.95 and Rs 20.00 to close at Rs 530.05 and Rs 705.00 respectively.
Ahsan Mehanti at Shehzad Chamdia Securities said that the market witnessed initial panic selling on failure of MQM/PPP power sharing deal, however institutional and retail investors supported the market to stay above 15400 level. The investors expectations of exceptional March result announcements in banking, oil, fertilisers invited investor interest in the relevant stocks. Higher oil prices in international commodity markets supported a few oil scrips.
"Definitely there are doubts as the ailing economy, the local political scene and issues on foreign policy front have raised serious concerns, adding to the uncertainty hill was the recommendation of the Senate to scrape PSO privatisation. Technically, the index will continue to find support 15,190-15,196 while overhead resistance stays 15,510-15,517.