KARACHI: Firing incident on the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM’s) lawmaker trimmed early gains at the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) on Tuesday with the index testing high level finally closed marginally negative.
The KSE-100 index lost 42.02 points to close at 35,546.03 points as compared to 35,588.05 of the previous session. The KSE-30 Index shed 45.35 points and closed at 21,803.98 points against 21,849.33 points of the last closing.
Habib Metro Financial Services’ analyst Saba Mahmood said trading on the index started in an upbeat mood with all eyes turned towards the political scene, as negotiations came to fruitful end for peaceful resolution of the resignation issue with next round of talks to be held in Islamabad.
The investors’ nerves were, however, again frayed as tensions mounted after firing on a political leader in Karachi, with market direction reversing soon after, she added.
She said the market is expected to remain range bound with volatility being name of the game in the short run.
Elixir Securities’ analyst Faisal Bilwani said Pakistan equities closed second on consecutive negative session, as the day kicked off on a positive note with investors attempting to cherry pick index names. However, the news of attack on a parliamentarian belonging to MQM hit the market hard with panic sellers lining to offload and dragging benchmark by nearly 1% in minutes, he added.
He said the stocks soon recovered on clarity of condition of the MQM leader with wider market closing the day little changed.
Bilwani expected the stocks to find a new narrow trading band with the end of month anxiety owing to futures rollover in days ahead to limit the retail activity in small and mid caps while index names would continue to track flows.
The market volume decreased to 277.832 million shares traded as compared to 347.845 million shares traded in previous session. Trading value at the local bourse increased to Rs 12.716 billion against Rs 11.103 billion of the previous session. Out of 385 scrips, 145 scrips advanced, 215 scrips declined while the value of 25 scrips remained unchanged.
The KMI-30 index dropped 10.69 points to close at 59,126.02 points as compared to 59,136.71 points of the previous session. The KSE all-share index went 36.08 points down to close at 24,817.69 points as compared to 24,853.78 points of the previous session.
The Karachi Electric Limited (K-Electric) was volume leader in the market with 41.202 million shares as it closed at Rs 8.52 followed by Pace (pak) Limited with trading of 12.866 million shares and closed at Rs 7.30. Dewan Cement traded 12.712 million shares and closed at Rs 14.40.