Karachi share market started in a negative zone on Wednesday and the KSE-100 index hit 9,701.72 points intra-day low level, down by 261.86 points due to investors cautious stance on the political front of the country and weakening economic indicators.
However, the market witnessed healthy recovery of 200 points due to late buying mainly by institutions in banking, oil and cement sector. Finally the KSE-100 index closed at 9,902.35 points level, with a net loss of 61.23 points while the KSE-30 index declined by 16.36 points and settled at 11,177.88 points level.
Trading activity shrank further as the ready market volume declined to 68.983 million shares as compared to 81.834 million shares traded a day earlier. The futures market turnover stood at 15.798 million shares against 15.632 million shares in the previous session.
The overall market capitalisation declined by Rs 15 billion to Rs 3.091 trillion. Trading took place in 266 scrips, out of which 154 scrips closed in the negative and 87 scrips closed in the positive while the value of 25 scrips remained unchanged.
NBP was the star performer of the day with 6.625 million shares and gained Rs 4.94 to close at Rs 113.34. Fresh buying was also witnessed in other banking sector stocks, as NIB Bank and MCB Bank increased by Re. 0.01 and Rs 7.55 to close at Rs 8.84 and Rs 275.75 with 2.851 million shares and 2.308 million shares respectively.
In the E&P sector, OGDC and POL declined by Rs 2.71 and Rs 13.49 to close at Rs 107.65 and Rs 256.31 with 4.555 million shares and 2.606 million shares respectively. Arif Habib Sec lost Rs 2.50 to close at Rs 111.00 with 4.652 million shares. Jahangir Siddiqui Co also remained active and gained Rs 16.16 to close at Rs 339.36 with 2.634 million shares.
Engro Chemical lost Rs 1.18 to close at Rs 185.50 with 2.443 million shares. In the cement sector, Zeal Pak and DG Khan Cement decreased by Re. 0.03 and Rs 2.32 to close at Rs 1.44 and Rs 44.22 with 3.098 million shares and 2.145 million shares respectively.
Colony Sugar Mills and Shell Pakistan were the highest gainers and gained Rs 38.00 and Rs 19.21 to close at Rs 48.00 and Rs 403.54 respectively. Ahsan Mehanti at Shehzad Chamdia Securities said that the selling pressure continued at the share market due to the declining rupee value.
High discount rates, political uncertainty, law and order situation in the country remained a major concern for the investors, who preferred to offload their holdings on the available margins. Falling oil prices in international markets, reduced margins for oil sector companies also affected investors'' confidence in oil sector.