Tuesday''s recovery on the Karachi share market proved short-lived as the KSE-100 index plunged by 261 points or 0.77 percent Wednesday on fears of foreign selling. The benchmark index closed at 33,537.42 points compared to 33,798.80 Tuesday. "Stocks closed bearish amid fears of foreign selling after global stocks plunge," said Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corp.
The offshore investors, who are withdrawing their money from the emerging markets world over, remained jittery at Karachi bourse and sold portfolios worth $7.792 million. The day''s foreign selling takes the week''s total outflows to $33.49 million compared to $43.5 million the market lost throughout last week. Mehanti said early gains at Karachi Stock Exchange faded on institutional profit-taking in select scrips across-the-board.
This, the analyst said, was amid investors'' concerns for weak international crude oil prices and prevailing uncertainty in global stocks and commodities. The equity investors, the analyst said, ignored positives like the State Bank''s announcement on economic stability in view of global financial turmoil and $1.2 billion annual assistance approval by Asian Development Bank. The day''s trading was recorded at the ready-counter lower at 279 million shares compared to 395 million of Tuesday. The traded value also contracted to Rs 12.43 billion from the previous Rs 19 billion.
Of the total 384 scrips, 140 appreciated, 225 depreciated while 19 stayed unchanged. The market capitalisation accumulated to Rs 7.261 trillion against Rs 7.300 trillion. K-Electric kept leading volumes with 15.9 million turnover. The power utility, however, declined to Rs 7.64 from its opening rate of Rs 7.94. Other best performers of the day were Dewan Cement 15.4 million, TRG Pakistan 14.5 million, Jahangir Siddiqui Company 13.7 million, Byco Petroleum 13.7 million, SNGPL 9 million, Askari Bank 8.9 million, Bank of Punjab 8.3 million, Pak Elektron 7.6 million and SSGC 6.7 million. Futures trade nose-dived to 66.4 million contracts from 109 million of last trading session.
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