The off-market trading significantly increased during the outgoing week as the average daily volumes at this counter surged by 106 percent to 8.0 million shares as compared to 3.9 million shares traded a week earlier. On the other hand, the share market witnessed lowest ever average daily volumes in the ready/cash market during the outgoing week at only 95,972 shares while no trading activity was recorded at the futures counter during the week.
"The absence of buyers at the main market due to floor mechanism imposed on share prices forced the weak holders to offload their holdings at the off-market counter on much lower prices with average discount of 31 percent," analysts said.
The weak holders also offloaded some stocks at much lower prices. The highest discount was recorded at 60 percent. "The outgoing week was one of the most dismal in the history of Karachi Stock Exchange as daily record low volumes were recorded at the cash counter amid uncertainty about the removal of price floor," Atif Zafar, an analyst at JS Global Capital said.
Amid no indication as to when the price floor rule would come to an end, investors continue to show significant activity in the off-market, where there is no floor, he added. He said that the outgoing week also saw investors seeking further discount as average discount increased to 31 percent from its previous week average of 29 percent.