A bearish trend on KSE

A bearish trend was witnessed on Karachi share market on Monday, the first session of 2012, and the KSE-100 index declined by 65.65 points to close at 11,282.01 points. The market opened on a positive note, but the index hit 11,193.63 points intra-day low. However, late buying in some select stocks supported the index to reduce early losses.
Trading remained low and the volume at ready counter declined to 33.167 million shares as compared to 62.569 million shares traded on last trading session. Market capitalisation declined by Rs 15 billion to Rs 2.930 trillion.
Of 325 active scrips, 105 closed in positive and 103 in negative, while the values of 117 stocks remained unchanged. Fatima Fertiliser Co was volume leader with 9.985 million shares and gained Re 0.92 to close at Rs 23.84. In other fertiliser sector stocks, Fauji Fertiliser Bin Qasim, Engro Corp and Fauji Fertiliser Co increased by Re 0.79, Rs 2.18 and Rs 4.41 to close at Rs 43.22, Rs 94.88 and Rs 153.95 with 3.350 million shares, 2.489 million shares and 1.411 million shares respectively.
In the banking sector, NIB bank and NBP lost Re 0.09 and Re 0.06 to close at Rs 1.64 and Rs 40.99 with 1.779 million shares and 0.804 million shares respectively, while MCB Bank and BoP surged by Rs 2.48 and Re 0.15 to close at Rs 137.08 and Rs 5.56 with 1.094 million shares and 0.799 million shares respectively. Arif Habib Corp gained Re 0.98 to close at Rs 26.89 with 1.414 million shares. Jahangir Siddiqui Co lost Re 0.03 to close at Rs 4.00 with 1.084 million shares.
Fauji Fertiliser Co and Unilever Pak were highest gainers by Rs 4.41 and Rs 4.20 to close at Rs 153.95 and Rs 5570.00 respectively, while Nestle Pakistan and Siemens Pak were worst losers by Rs 143.61 and Rs 52.43 to close at Rs 3453.50 and Rs 1004.32 respectively.
Hasnain Asghar Ali at Aziz Fidahusein Co said that the session opened with severe negativity wherein across the board selling by both local and offshore participants in frontline and expensive stocks, including OGDC, led to low volume price erosion, forcing the index into deep red zone. Approval by US President of freezing aid to Pakistan, gas supply shortfall, and recent increase in both gas and petroleum products prices--that is likely to stay highly inflationary--and inclusion of various items in positive list on trade with India were the latest in creating negativity. The existing issues of rising fiscal deficit, and political and economic matters disallowed resistance to the onslaught, that continued to deepen the losses as the session progressed.
He said that the renewed buying in the fertiliser stocks, wherein group-specific stock led the turnover by contributing more than 30 percent to the overall turnover on hopes of price increase, did invite across the board short covering, allowing the index to stage handsome recovery. Absence of follow-up support, as depicted by low turnover and presence of cued up sellers on strength, however, disallowed the bourse to continue on the recovery path.