Dull trading activities on KSE

Dull trading activities were witnessed at the Karachi share market during the week ended March 11, 2011 due to prevailing political uncertainty in the country and selling by foreign investors.
The KSE-100 index however managed to close above 12,000 psychological level at 12,045.25 points with a meagre gain of 45.22 points on week-on-week basis.
Average daily volumes at ready counter drastically declined by 39.6 percent on week-on-week basis to 88.43 million shares as compared to previous week's average of 146.50 million shares.
The overall market capitalisation increased by Rs 6 billion to Rs 3.239 trillion. The foreign investors were net sellers of shares worth $5.9 million during the week.
The market opened under pressure on Monday and the index after moving both sides closed at 11,974.55 points down 25.48 points with total volume of 116.942 million shares. The index lost another 34.54 points on Tuesday and closed at 11,940.01 points with extremely low volumes of 54.216 million shares.
The investors interest revived on Wednesday and the index surged by 188.14 points to close at 12,128.15 points with 100.411 million shares. The market however once again witnessed a mixed trend on Thursday and the index closed at 12,125.79 points, down 2.36 points with 103.069 million shares. The index lost 80.54 points on Friday due to foreign selling and closed the week at 12,045.25 points with 67.502 million shares.
Yawaruz Zaman, an analyst at Invest Capital and Securities said that the major economic indicators of the country are depicting positive signs including foreign exchange reserves, workers remittances and exports of the country.
He said despite the net foreign outflow from equities of $5.9 million, the KSE-100 index managed to cross the psychological level of 12,000 points yet again during the week. The index closed for the week at 12045.25 points, up 0.6 percent on week-on-week basis. However, average traded value during the week stood at $55 million, down 23 percent on week-on-week basis while average traded volumes were at 88 million shares, down 39.6 percent on week-on-week basis.
He said the major reason for such depressing activity at the bourse during the week, was re-emergence of the political uncertainty on account of renewed tussle between government and the judiciary coupled with one of the coalition partners' stand-off against the government itself.
Despite declining volumes, sentiment was unhampered mainly because of the upcoming launch of the new products (MTS, MFS and SLB).
On economic front, betterment was seen as ADB approved a loan of $400 million, which will be utilised for the repairs of flood affected irrigation system. In addition to that, World Bank is said to provide a loan of $125 million for post-flood infrastructure development. On political front, scenario frightened as coalition partners rejoined the government.