Equities continued to fall across-the-board weighed by prevailing grave political crisis. The benchmark KSE-100 index lost another 432 points Wednesday to close below 27,000 points level. On Tuesday, the KSE-100 index closed at 27,811 points compared to 28,244 points Tuesday. Overall, during the last three days, Karachi stock market has declined by 3.7 percent due to ongoing political crisis.
"Margin selling coupled with different rumours about the political set-up once again affected the share market, which fell by 1.53 percent," said Samar Iqbal, an analyst at Topline. She said volumes increased to 132 million shares and the value to Rs 6.8 billion against Rs 4.6 billion in previous session. Lucky Cement closed at lower limit of 5 percent on Tuesday amid institutional selling, while Pakistan Petroleum Limited announced June quarter result as per the expectations, she added.
During the intra-day trading, the market fluctuated in red and green zones and touched 28,308 points highest and 27,585 points lowest level. Despite negative trend, volume at the ready counter surged to 132 million shares compared to 76 million shares in previous session. Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib said stocks fell across-the-board amid political deadlock in the ongoing demands for PM resignation and dissolution of assemblies and Army warnings to government to settle protracted protests.
Fall in banking spreads to 5.95 percent in July-14, Rs 700 billion estimated loss on political crises, investors concerns on the deadline given by PAT and reluctance from foreign investors despite record bullish global stocks played a catalytic role in the bearish activity at KSE despite Supreme Court ruling on refund of GIDC, terming it unconstitutional since Dec-11, he added.
Market capitalisation decreased by Rs 81 billion to Rs 6.536 trillion against previous Rs 6.617 trillion. Trading took place in 345 companies, of which 79 closed in green zone, 246 in red, while 20 remained unchanged. Among top 10 volume leaders, only one recorded a positive trend, while 9 closed lower. TRG Pak Ltd emerged the volume leader with 8.19 million shares, gaining Re 0.16 to close at Rs 10.06. Pak Elektron Ltd stood second, down Rs 1.18 to close at Rs 28.36 on 7.7 million shares. Maple Leaf Cement closed at Rs 25.54, down Re 0.95, on 7.6 million shares.
B.O.Punjab lost Re 0.04 to Rs 7.91 on 6.8 million shares. With 6.2 million shares, K-Electric Ltd closed at Rs 6.74, down Re 0.21. Sui South Gas declined by Rs 1.36 to close at Rs 26.01 on 5.6 million shares. Pak Petroleum lost Rs 2.19 to Rs 219.60 on 4.7 million shares. With a trading volume of 4 million shares, Lafarge Pak shed Re 0.05 to close at Rs 15.02. Faysal Bank fell by Re 0.95 to Rs 14.53 on 4 million shares and Fauji Cement lost Re 0.16 to Rs 18.28 on 3.6 million shares.
Nestle Pak and Murree Brewery were the top gainers with Rs 100.00 and Rs 45.97 to close at Rs 7,500.00 and Rs 974.30, respectively. Wyeth Pak Ltd and Rafhan Maize SPOT were the top losers with Rs 164.27 and Rs 92.50 to close at Rs 3,200.11 and Rs 10,700.00, respectively.