KARACHI - Ignoring opening of 3G/4G spectrum auction and announcement of 3 consortia for OGDC, PPL and UBL privatisation, institutional investors’ profit taking in index heavyweights pushed benchmark index down by 1.6pc, equity expert Samar Iqbal observed here on Tuesday.
At Karachi equity market benchmark 100 share index misplaced 474.65 points or 1.63 percent to end the day at 28717.19 points compared to 29191.84 levels of the previous day.
Analyst at Arif Habib Corp, Ahsan Mehanti said panic selling witnessed at KSE amid future contracts rollover and profit taking by foreign investors in overbought oil stocks.
Concerns for circular debt issue in energy sector, export losses in textile, cement sectors played a catalyst role in bearish sentiments despite hopes for heavy receipts on account of $1.3b 3G/4G telecom licence auction and privatisation plans for UBL, PPL and OGDCL GDRs, he added.
KSE-Allshare shed by 307.92 points or 1.41 percent to close the day at 21483.67 points, KSE-30 index off by 375.48 points or 1.85 percent to close the day at 19962.07 points while KMI-30 index down by 615.93 points or 1.33 percent to conclude the session at 45741.53 points.
Dealers said lower than expected corporate results also forced investors to trim their holdings. PSO closed at lower circuit breaker, MCB declined by 1.3pc and UBL lost 4pc. EFERT and Engro also declined after lower than expected earnings announcement by EFERT.
Market traded 277.102 million shares after opening at 191.485 million shares and the value of traded shares was climbed to Rs 13.908 billion from Rs 9.430 billion. Capitalisation of the market maintained at Rs 6.890 trillion compared to Rs 6.994 trillion of a day earlier.
Out of 371 active companies 242 closed in negative and 107 in positive while the value of 22 stocks remained intact. Rafhan Maize led the downhill trend decreased by Rs 440 to 10300 followed by Wyeth Pak Ltd down by Rs 50 to Rs 4050. Bata (Pak) XD and Bahanero Textile were the highest price gainers of the day up by Rs 45.84 to Rs 3411 and Rs 39.95 to Rs 839.90.
Active list was topped by Lafarge Pak.XD with 19.787 million shares as it closed at Rs 13.67 after opening at Rs 13.99. Maple Leaf Cement was the second highest with 17.774 million shares off by Re 1.03 to Rs 30.16. It was followed by JS Co with 14.555 million shares fell by Re 0.70 to Rs 12, K-Electric with 10.667 million shares reduced by Re 0.20 to Rs 6.85 and Fauji Cement with 10.002 million shares off by Re 0.59 to Rs 17.57.