Share prices continued drifting lower amid worries of new taxation in the forthcoming budget and some internal problems due to a tug-of-war among market stalwarts, but stormed back on third day of the week, ending over a month-long losing streak and recovering partial losses, during the past week.
The week opened with a depressed note and the market showed a dismal performance amid budget worries and rumours, regarding internal problems due to reports of a row among heavyweights.
During the week under review, the LSE-25 index drifted lower to 4,548.22 points from 4,777.59, recording a loss of 229.37 points or 4.8 percent. Volume, however, improved by 20.564 million shares or 63 percent to 52.999 million from 32.435 million shares. There were strong rumours that some big players having stakes in certain stocks were bidding to outclass each other which led to a baffling state of affairs in the market, analysts said.
There were also rumours of possibility of default of some big players in Lahore and Karachi, which caused panic and investors stayed at distance that resulted in dull activity, they added.
According to market gurus, tussle between some vested interests was the actual reason for the down-drift and the rumours of budget were used as mere excuses by some elements for personal gains. The market had also no backing of the institutions because of which the volume kept declining during the week, they said.
There were reports that some mutual fund owners were responsible for the crisis, depriving the market of a substantial sum of 10 billion dollars, analysts said, adding the size of recent loss was higher in comparison to March 2005 crisis, in which the market had lost as much as 6 billion dollars.