KARACHI: The Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) 100-index has lost 334.51 points in the weeklong trading, as it opened at 30015.8 points on Monday and closed at 29681.29 points on Friday.
On Monday, the first day of trading, KSE lost 21.93 points to stand at 29993.87 points as the country has been facing multifarious challenges these days.
Earlier on Monday, the market started the week on a positive note and went up 34 points or 0.11 percent to reach 30049.91 points in morning session. However, the market failed to set the pace due to cautious trading. The KSE-100 opened at the weekend closing of 30015 and started upward march. Investors were cautious and played safe and opted to square their positions as uncertainty over the political situation and the SBP Monetary Policy prevailed.
Tuesday was a lucky day for KSE as the Stock Exchange gained 149.90 points to close at 30143.77 points, amid the confusions and concerns which have been haunting the market for past few days.
Financial experts, on Tuesday, were of the view that changes in top brass of Army and Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Sirajul Haq’s positive statement of peaceful solution of prevailing political situation might have helped increase confidence of traders.
Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) 100-index lost 47.97 points to stand at 30095.80 points and volume of 103,676,850 shares on Wednesday, as the market could not sustain yesterday’s gains of 149 points.
On Wednesday, the highest increase witnessed in price of the Nishat Mills Ltd with a volume of 5,189,100 and price per share of 122.72 (4.41), B.O. Punjab with a volume 5,170,500 of price per share of 8.07 (0.04), Adamjee Ins. with a volume 4,749,500 of price per share of 47.62 (0.28) while the Nestle Pak. XD with price per share of 7800.00 (-80.00), Colgate PalmoliveXD with price per share of 1500.00 (-20.00) and Shezan Inter per share of 955.00 (-12.99) remained the biggest losers of the day.
Financial experts, on Wednesday, were of the view that Nishat Mills caught investors’ attention with the stock hitting its upper circuit, due to better-than-expected results declared by the company. “As the government is offering 323 million ordinary shares and global depositary shares (GDS), each representing 10 ordinary shares in OGDCL, market will show positive sentiments in future trading,” they added.
The KSE lost 155.53 points to stand at 29940.27 points and volume of 5,708,428,194 shares on Thursday, as the market added to yesterday’s losses.
As a whole 27.44 percent of companies witnessed increase in their shares while 30.25 percent lost their share value and 4.46 per cent companies remained stable on Thursday.
On Friday, 100-index lost 258.98 points to stand at 29681.29 points and volume of 86,490,530 shares on last day of trading, Friday, as the routine life in Karachi came to a halt after MQM chief Altaf Hussain asked his workers to stage sit-ins across the city following the arrest of workers.
Earlier on last day of trading, KSE witnessed fluctuation in trading as the market opened with a positive trend, adding 50 points but shed 86 points and reached the stage of 29854 till 12:30pm. After that market kept on losing points and lost 258 points at the end of the trading day.
Financial experts said that circular debt in energy sector played a catalyst role in bearish activity at KSE despite reports of rising private sector credit data. “Also the political unrest which now grappling the Karachi as MQM also started protests, affected the confidence of shareholders badly,” they added.
They attributed the negative trends to various challenges the country is facing and the weeks-long political stalemate. The political uncertainty was triggered by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s Azadi march and the Pakistan Awami Tehreek’s Inqilab march. Both Imran Khan’s PTI and Dr Tahirul Qadri’s PAT have been staging sit-ins in the federal capital in front of Parliament House, demanding Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s resignation for “what they called” worst rigging in the May 11, 2013 general elections.
On the other hand, government on Thursday issued a whitepaper on Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) performance in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa for the past 14 months. The PML-N MNA Marvi Memon presented the paper titled ‘A Great Betrayal in the Name of Change’, which compares the performance of the PML-N government in Punjab and PTI government in K-P.
