The Karachi share market witnessed mixed trend during week ended on September 9, 2007 due to prevailing political uncertainty in the country. The KSE-100 index finished at 12,406.71 points with a gain of 192.45 points, while the KSE-30 index surged by 201.82 points, closing at 15,100.29 points level.
The market witnessed improved trading and the average daily volume of ready market increased by 27 percent to 219 million shares as compared to 178 million shares of a week earlier. The average daily turnover of futures market declined by 22 percent to 52 million shares against 67 million.
Market capitalisation surged by 1.4 percent to Rs 3.6 trillion. Portfolio investment increased by $80 million. The market started on a bullish and the KSE-100 index gained 450 points in the first three trading sessions, but saw declining trend during last two sessions, losing 257 points.
On Monday, despite selling pressure due to political uncertainty, the market managed to close in green and the KSE-100 index gained 18.79 points to close at 12,233.05 points level.
On Tuesday, the market witnessed fresh buying and KSE-100 index surged by 160.05 points to close at 12,393.10 points level. On Wednesday, the market saw bullish session on the back of fresh buying by local and foreign investors and the KSE-100 index gained another 270.76 points to close at 12,663.86 points level.
On Thursday, the market took downturn as the investors opted to offload their holdings due to uncertainty on political front and the KSE-100 index lost 96.48 points to close at 12,567.38 points level.
On Friday, the market witnessed another depressive session on the back of prevailing political uncertainty and the KSE-100 index lost another 160.67 points to close at 12,406.71 points level on the end of the week. Haris Dagia, an analyst at JS Global Capital said that the correction was mainly due to the political uncertainty.
During the week, cement sector was in the limelight as investors showed keenness in the sector on the news of record high monthly sales of 2.5 million tons in August. Besides, a massive 144 percent growth was witnessed in cement exports last month. Positive price movements were observed in a couple of cement stocks during the week, like Lucky, DG Khan and Al Abbas Cement, which gained 9 percent, 10 percent and 28 percent respectively.
The news about a draft SBP circular, suggesting 100 percent provisioning of bad loans weighed down banking stocks in the last session of the week. Political uncertainty continued to haunt investors this week and some investors offloaded their position on concern of fast-changing political condition against the backup of expected arrival of Nawaz Sharif next week. Ambreen Jiwani at Invest Capital said that sectors that gained the most were insurance (6.9 percent), cement (4.7 percent) and Investment Banks (3.9 percent).
Major losers were Glass & Ceramics (-2.8 percent), Transport (2.4 percent) and Textile Spinning (-2.3 percent). The blue chips sectors namely banking, fertiliser, OMC, and E&P showed a change of 0.5 percent, 0.7 percent, -0.7 percent and 2.3 percent respectively.