Despite healthy buying witnessed on the first and last trading days of the week ended on April 25, 2009, KSE-100 index closed at 7,620.87 points level, with a net loss of 174.08 points. Analysts said that security concerns arising from news from Swat valley along with selling pressure from high net worth individuals amid profit taking dampened the market sentiment.
Average daily volume at ready counter declined by 28.3 percent to 241.23 million shares as compared to previous week's 336.62 million shares. The top 6 volume leaders were OGDC, NBP, PPTA, NIB, DGKC and PTC, which cumulatively accounted for 24 percent of total volume.
Market capitalisation declined by Rs 50 billion to Rs 2.273 trillion. The outflow of foreign portfolio investment continued and the offshore investors withdrew $6.3 million from the equity market. On Monday, the start of the market was positive and the index surged by 107.53 points to close at 7,902.48 points with a volume of 252.880 million shares.
However, on Tuesday, the positive trend could not continue due to profit taking and the index lost 68.34 points to close at 7,834.14 points with 320.331 million shares. On Wednesday, the market witnessed heavy selling and the index declined by a massive 259.97 points to close at 7,574.17 points level with 226.886 million shares.
Selling pressure continued on Thursday and the index lost 238.45 points to close at 7,335.72 points with 181.167 million s hares. On Friday, the market took upward trend due to fresh buying on dips and the index witnessed a healthy recovery of 285.15 points to close at 7,620.87 points level with 224.899 million shares.
Atif Zafar, an analyst at JS Global Capital said that security concerns and selling by high net worth individuals were major reasons for deteriorating market sentiment during the outgoing week.
Fertiliser and auto sectors remained in the limelight. Fertiliser sector was among top performers on the back of 54 percent earnings growth and a more than decent payout by Fauji Fertiliser Company (FFC). The auto sector also performed admirably on better than expected result announcements by Indus Motor and Pak Suzuki. Fertiliser and auto sectors market capitalisation was up by 6.1 percent and 9.4 percent respectively when compared to total market capitalisation decline of 2.2 percent.
Romessa Mirza at Invest Capital and Securities said that the week had opened on an encouraging note following the positive sentiment generated in lieu of the $5.28 billion from the Friends of Democratic Pakistan (FoDP), bestowed as pure grants. Sentiments also peaked in anticipation of the monetary policy announced on Monday, which conferred a policy rate cut as per expectations.