The Karachi share market last week, ending on January 5, 2008, witnessed record making events when the KSE-100 index took the record single-day plunge of 696.25 points on Monday, as also the highest single-day jump of 643.04 points on Thursday.
The drop was due to the prevailing uncertainty and law and order situation in the country, and the bearish sentiment persisted up to Wednesday. However, later as the situation changed for better the KSE-100 registered a record single-day gain on the back of heavy buying on very attractive levels.
By weekend, the KSE-100 index settled at 14,259.60 points, down by 512.48 points, while KSE-30 index declined by 689.19 points to close at 16,889.59 points level.
The average daily volume of ready market slipped by 23 percent to 231 million shares as compared to 299 million shares of previous week. Futures market average turnover dropped by 31 percent to 42 million shares against 61 million shares.
Market capitalisation declined by Rs 191 billion on week-on-week basis to settled at Rs 4.352 trillion on the end of the week against Rs 4.543 trillion.
Foreign investors' stance on Pakistan capital market can be sensed from declining SCRAs balances, which settled at $37.3 million on Friday, with an outflow of $34.8 million during the week, mainly due to political turmoil in the country.
The market on Monday started on a strong negative note and the KSE-100 index witnessed worst single-day decline of 696.25 points to close at 14,075.83 points due to prevailing uncertainty and law and order situation.
The KSE-30 index also witnessed worst decline of 861.68 points to close at 16,717.10 points level. The bearish trend continued on Tuesday and the KSE-100 index lost 409.40 points to close at 13,666.43 points. The KSE-30 index also declined by 551.61 points to close at 16,165.49 points level.
The KSE-100 index lost another 313.05 points to close at 13,353.38 points level on Wednesday due to prevailing political uncertainty in the country. TheKSE-100 index lost 1418.70 points during the first three days.
The market took upward stance on Thursday on the back of heavy buying on very attractive levels as the investors' confidence revived after President Pervez Musharraf's speech and announcement of the election date. The KSE-100 index witnessed highest single-day gain of 643.04 points to close at 13,996.42 points' level. The KSE-30 index also witnessed a highest single-day increase of 764.49 to close at 16,479.28 points.
The bullish trend continued on Friday and the KSE-100 index gained another 263.18 points to close at 14,259.60 points level.
Farhan Rizvi, analyst at JS Global Capital, said that the assassination of Benazir Bhutto brought politics back at the centre of attention, raising numerous questions on the country's future direction. While negative market reaction to her demise was widely expected, the delay in decision making from the Election Commission was an unwelcome development. Things settled down on Wednesday as the EC's decision to postpone elections to February 18 was not met with any serious opposition from the major political parties.
Khurram Schehzad at Invest Capital & Securities said that most of the sectors were in red zone in terms of appreciation on week-on-week basis. Among the top 3 losers, Investment Banks/Cos Sector topped depreciated by massive 15.0 percent on week-on-week basis followed by Insurance and Automobile Assembler with -8.4 percent and -5.4 percent respectively.
Conversely, the top-3 gainers were Cable & Electrical Goods with 5.0 percent appreciation followed by Vanaspati & Allied Industries and Food & Personal Care Products with 1.5 percent and 1.4 percent respectively. In the blue chip class, Tec& Comm sector took the lead, followed by Commercial Banks, E&P, Cement, OMGC and Fertiliser with -5.3 percent, -4.1 percent, -3.5 percent, -3.2 percent and -2.8 percent respectively.