Bearish trend prevailed at the Karachi share market on Monday on the back of uncertainty on political front and declining portfolio investment at the equity market. The benchmark KSE-100 index witnessed a fresh decline of and closed at 12,283.23 points level.
On the other hand, the junior free float market capitalisation-based KSE-30 index shed 58.51 points to close at 15,228.72 points level. The market witnessed dull trading activity as the ready market volume declined to 128.795 million shares as compared to 206.843 million shares traded of Friday.
The futures market turnover also decreased to 30.826 million shares against 34.619 million shares previously. The overall market capitalisation declined by Rs 19 billion to Rs 3.580 trillion.
Trading took place in 372 scrips out of which 198 scrips closed in negative column and 135 scrips closed in positive column while the value of 39 scrips remained unchanged. Bank Al Falah was the star performer with 10.102 million shares and surged by Rs 0.15 to close at Rs 56.50. Azgard Nine was the second highest volume leader with 9.469 million shares. However, the scrip lost Rs 1.40 to close at Rs 33.25.
OGDC declined by Rs 0.25 to close at Rs 119.75, with 8.189 million shares. TRG Pakistan lost Rs 0.05 to close at Rs 10.90. WorldCall Telecom declined by Rs 0.30 to close at Rs 16.25. However, Telecard surged by Rs 0.20 to close at Rs 10.60.
BoP declined by Rs 0.25 to close at Rs 104.75. Fauji Fertiliser Bin Qasim lost Rs 0.45 to close at Rs 36.15. BankIslami Pak declined by Rs 0.05 to close at Rs 11.75. Lucky Cement lost by Rs 0.90 to close at Rs 98.45. Siemens and Shell Gas LPG were the highest gainers of the day which gained Rs 71.00 and Rs 10.75 to close at Rs 1549.00 and Rs 225.75 respectively.
Fazal Textile and Adamjee Insurance were the highest losers, which lost Rs 11.05 and Rs 10.05 to close at Rs 215.95 and Rs 244.95 respectively. Ahsan Mehanti at Shehzad Chamdia Securities said that the investors remained on sidelines due to uncertainty on political front both at domestic level and in the region.
The market was over-leveraged on Friday as the total investment under CFS had reached at Rs 54.6 billion. Foreign investors also opted cautious stance and offloaded their holdings, especially in banking stocks, and SCRA balances declined to $747 million, which shows that foreign investors were offloading their holdings. Arrival of FBI team for probing inside trading case was also a negative, which created some pressure for the investment.