Uncertainty over the ''floor price'' issue continued during the week ended on October 25, 2008 as the regulator could not implement the announced bail-out package for the stock market.
The bourses witnessed lowest trading volumes during the week and the KSE-100 index closed at 9,182.88 points level, with a marginal loss of 1.36 points. Average daily trading volume of ready market declined to lowest ever level of 0.187 million shares as compared to previous low of 0.735 million shares a week back.
No trading took place on the futures counter during the week. Market capitalisation declined by Rs 11 billion to Rs 2.829 trillion. The market opened under pressure on Monday. However, the index managed to close in positive at 9,184.75, up by 0.51 points with trading volume of 177,220 shares.
On Tuesday, trading improved slightly and the index gained 2.15 points to close at 9,186.90 points level with a total trade of 237,620 shares. On Wednesday, the market witnessed selling pressure and the index lost 3.16 points to close at 9,183.74 points level with 123,600 shares. The index lost another 0.86 points on Thursday to close at 9,182.88 points level with 12,500 shares.
The market witnessed a dull session on Friday and the index remained unchanged at 9,182.88 points level with a total trade of 279,000 shares. Romessa Mirza, an analyst at Invest Capital & Securities, said that investors, snoring away for quite a while, seemed to be stirring awake as some positive news started filtering in. The government announced a Rs. 20 billion open-end fund for select scrips and a Rs 30 billion guarantee for foreign investors choosing to avail put options. Moreover, banks also reported better-than-expected earnings of third quarter of CY08 so far.
Low volumes prevailed this week as well, with the index fluctuating only within a range of five points. the average trading volumes for the week were 187,588 shares per day, a fall of 74 percent on week-on-week basis from the already low average of 7,35000 shares previous week.