The law and order situation in Islamabad and other parts of the country created panic selling at Karachi share market on Friday. The market started on positive note and the KSE-100 index hit 13,726.71 points intra-day high level on the back of fresh buying at lower level, but the index could not sustained that level due to law and order situation in the country.
Which pushed the index into negative zone. At one time, the index reached 13,555.83 points intra-day low level. Finally, the KSE-100 index closed at 13,630.50 points' level, down by 52.87 points, while the KSE-30 index lost 47.40 points to close at 16,491.45 points' level.
The market witnessed dull trading activity as the ready market volume declined to 239.038 million shares as compared to 340.448 million shares traded a day earlier. The futures market turnover, however, significantly increased to 111.253 million shares against 91.221 million shares previously.
The overall market capitalisation declined by Rs 18 billion to rupees four trillion. Trading took place in 318 scrips, out of which 199 scrips closed in negative and 95 in positive, while the value of 24 scrips remained unchanged.
OGDC was the overall market volume leader of the day with 23.921 million shares, but the scrip lost Rs 0.15 to close at Rs 122. PPL declined by Rs 2.50 to close at Rs 263.50 with a total turnover of 20.849 million shares.
Profit taking was witnessed in banking sector, as National Bank of Pakistan (NBP), Bank of Punjab (BoP) and Bank Al Falah lost Rs 0.75, Rs 1.80 and Rs 1.15 to close at Rs 258.75, Rs 103 and Rs 54.25 respectively. PTCL surged by Rs 0.85 to close at Rs 59.40. Japan Power gained Rs 0.15 to close at Rs 9.25.
The cement sector witnessed mixed trend as Lucky Cement gained Rs 0.20 to close at Rs 128.20. DG Khan Cement declined by Rs 0.25 to close at Rs 108.25 and Fauji Fertiliser Bin Qasim lost Rs 0.40 to close at Rs 45.20.
Hinopak Motor and Jahangir Siddiqui Co were the highest gainers with Rs 17 and Rs 12.50 gains to close at Rs 357 and Rs 713 respectively, while Unilever and Pakistan Cables were the highest losers, which lost Rs 45 and Rs 12.90 to close at Rs 2255.00 and Rs 246.05 respectively.
Ahsan Mehanti at Shehzad Chamdia Securities said law and order situation in the country was the main issue, which created uncertainty among the market participants. The prevailing Lal Masjid issue, law and order situation in Waziristan and the killing of some militants in Balochistan created panic selling and the market participants offloaded their holdings. However, late buying at lower levels, mainly on the back of NBP GDRs, supported the index to recover some of its losses.