Volatility witnessed

A volatile Karachi stocks market remained range bound last week primarily because of what analysts said political uncertainty in the country. During the week that ended on August 13, the KSE-100 index lost what market observers said a marginal 0.8 percent to close at 35,937 points.
The number of shares traded daily averaged 12.8 percent higher on 333 million. The traded value, however, depreciated by 10 percent to Rs 12.2 billion or $120 million.
The decline in the value of stocks traded, analysts said, was because of investors' toward small cap stocks like SILKR, PACE, KEL and LOTCHEM.
"Volatility at the bourse persisted during the outgoing week driven by the fourth largest political party resigning from all three levels of the parliament and pressure on global equities amid devaluation of the Chinese Yuan," said Raheel Ashraf of JS Research.
Topline analysts said falling international oil prices, devaluation of Chinese Yuan and local political tension hurt the market sentiment.
Despite the benchmark index ended bearish the foreign portfolio investment landed in green zone registering an inflow of $ 0.9 million compared to last week's $ 4.9 million outflow.
AHL Researchers noted that major buyers were companies with registering net inflow of $ 8.8 million, whereas major sellers remained brokers with net outflow of $ 5.1 million. On the other hand, they said, mutual funds and banks exhibited net outflow of $ 1.9 million and $ 1.4 million.
Oil sector prolonged its bearish rally with international crude prices what Raheel said maintaining its downtrend and refineries announcing lower-than-expected financial results.
The auto sector felt the heat of what analyst described as a slowdown in sales, which declined 11 percent in July.
Key highlights of the week were: US hinting at non-availability of Coalition Support Fund beyond 2015, Government seeking two waivers from IMF under its eight review, power sector receivables increasing by 23.5 percent, remittances rising to $1.66 billion in July, senate body approving ordinance to lower WHT on banking transactions to 0.3 percent for non-filers till September 30, the finance minister deferring approval of new auto policy and the government continuing providing 650MW to K-Electric until renegotiations.