Karachi Stocks Market plunged by 86.64 points or 0.25 percent on Monday on the back of profit-taking. Also, equity analysts cited uncertainty on politico-diplomatic front as another drag on the volatile KSE 100-share index. The market commenced the week's first trading session with a bull-run that took the benchmark index to the intra-day high of 34,788.27 points during the first half.
The market, however, could not sustain this trend and soon slid to lowest 34,555.77 points to finally have settled at 34,570.30 points compared to the previous 34,656.94 points. "Stocks closed lower on profit-taking on concerns for rising political uncertainty and weakening Pak-India relations," viewed analyst Ahsan Mehanti.
The foreign investors also offloaded their positions to make a net selling of $5.3 million. The turnover at the ready-counter stood lower at 263 million shares from 257 million of the last trading session. The value of the shares traded ended in green zone at Rs 18 billion from Rs 17 billion.
Of the 372 scrips that changed hands, only 139 could gain value while 217 lost and 16 remained unchanged. The market capital inched up to Rs 7.839 trillion from Rs 7.853 trillion. Jahangir Siddiqui Company Limited led the day's volume by counting 35 million of its listed stakes traded and closing down at Rs 21.35.
Other best performers were Engro Fertiliser 21.2 million shares, TRG Pakistan 15.3 million, Pakistan International Bulk Terminal 14.4 million, Engro Corp 12.8 million, Pak Elektron 12.4 million, Maple Leaf Cement 11.2 million, Fauji Cement 7 million, Hum Network 6.9 million and Engro Powergen 6.2 million. Trading on futures market also ended downward at 30.5 million shares from Friday's 34 million.
Mehanti said strong earnings announcement by Engro Fertilisers, cement sales data for January '15 supported the index amid concerns for volatile international oil prices, falling banking sector spreads and limited foreign interest. Ovais Ahsan of JS Research said the market saw profit-taking in the first session of the week with index heavy weights witnessing "selling pressure". The MCB, OGDC and FFC lost value by 2.1, 1 and 0.6 percent respectively.
Investors were also cautious due to an outflow of $8.6 million from foreign portfolio investors on Friday fearing more selling would emanate from the foreign front, the analyst said. Engro Corporation rose by 3.6 percent on the back of its subsidiary Engro Fertiliser that gained 3.8 percent after announcing a better-than-expected EPS of Rs 6.29 for 2014.
"News flow indicating that Pakistan would receive its first LNG cargo by month end also induced buying interest in ENGRO which has been the first to set up a handling terminal and is set to benefit from the arrival of LNG shipments," said Ovais. The cement sector, he said, saw intra-day strength on the back of reports that World Bank had approved five energy projects. LUCK, up 1.43 percent, rallied though profit-taking in the latter half of the day clipped intra-day gains.