KARACHI: Stocks battered amid thin trade at Karachi Stock Exchange over concerns for outcome of Pak Army military operation against foreign and local terrorists.
The equity market benchmark 100-share index shed 79.82 points or 0.27 percent to close the day at 29651.04 points. Analyst Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp said that economic uncertainty, ISIS advance in Iraq and US military options to combat insurgency impacted the sentiments. Taxi scheme announcement in Punjab provincial budget ‘14 led support in selected auto sector shares.
Limited foreign interest, global markets fall on Iraq fears and concerns for circular debt in energy sector played a catalyst role in bearish activity.
Local bourse witnessed dull trading session with falling volumes of 130m shares (value Rs6.8b). Decline in global equity markets and start of military operation forced market participants to stay cautious. FCCL led the volume with 10m shares closed Re0.37 up, followed by Quice with 8m shares and BOP with 6.6m shares. Of 344 active companies, 86 closed in green while 227 declined, observed Samar Iqbal AVP at Topline Securities.
The KES-All share index declined by 96.37 points or 0.44 percent and closed at 21947.21, KSE-30 Index shed by 28.80 points or 0.14 percent to end the day at 20377.67 while off by 88.37 points or 0.19 percent and concluded at the day at 47640.70 points. The three top traded companies were Fauji Cement with a volume of 10,469,500 and price per share of 20.44 (0.37), Dewan Motors with a volume 4,850,500 of price per share of 8.40 (0.08), DGK Cement with a volume 3,701,500 of price per share of 91.12 (1.30).
Colgate Palmolive with price per share 1863.86 (88.75), Shezan Inter with price per share of 844.50 (34.50), while Rafhan Maize with price per share of 10830.00 (-570.00) and Wyeth Pak Ltd with price per share of 4500.01 (-152.99).
