The Karachi share market ended negative Friday losing another 212.58 points or 0.63 percent, weighed mainly by profit-taking in oil and gas sector. The benchmark KSE-100 index closed at 33,530.30 points compared to Thursday's 33,742.88, the day's lowest. With bears dominating sentiments throughout the session, the volumes recovered to 183 million shares from 160 million of the previous day.
The value of stocks traded, however, closed lower at Rs 8 billion compared to Rs 8.5 billion a day earlier. Of the total 337 scrips that changed hands, 141 posted gains, 178 lost their worth and that of 18 stayed unchanged. The market capitalisation also landed in the negative territory at Rs 7.302 trillion. The foreign portfolio investment stayed positive with a net buying of $ 1.99 million. Byco Petroleum kept leading volumes by counting 25.54 million of its listed stakes traded, each rising in value to Rs 13.50. Other nine best performing stocks were Lotte Chemical 23.5 million, TRG Pakistan 20.7 million, K-Electric 13.6 million, Jahangir Siddiqui Company 10 million, Pak Elektron 5.6 million, Arif Habib Corp 4.6 million, Engro Fertiliser 4.3 million, Engro Corp 3.6 million and PTCL 3.5 million shares.
Trade on the futures market was recorded at 15.7 million contracts against 18.7 million of last trading session. Umair Hasan of JS Global said volatility was witnessed through the day's trade as the market ended 213 points lower. Bears dominated the oil and gas sector as a slight decline in global oil prices (Brent and WTI) paved the way for profit-taking, the analyst added.
The index heavyweight OGDC, POL, PPL and PSO shed 2.3, 2.4, 2.6 and 0.9 percent in valuations. "Uncertainty over a discount rate cut led to mixed sentiment in the cement sector," said Umair. That's why FCCL, MLCF and LUCK ended 0.5, 0.6 and 0.8 percent lower while DGKC could manage to grab marginal gain of 0.14 percent. The uncertainty over the discount rate cut also caused the banking sector to remain generally suppressed.
Strong investor interest was seen in the automobile sector wherein ATLH, GHNL, HCAR and INDU ended 2.5, 5, 3.5 and 0.2 up. This analyst said was on the back of investors' expectations of positive upcoming results due to strong sales numbers. BYCO, historically a loss-making entity, posted profits in its latest financial result. This translated into a positive run on the stock that closed 2.6 percent higher Friday. Moving forward, international crude oil prices are expected to be a major driver for the index.
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