No progress in friends’ meeting, KSE clings onto previous level

Staff ReportKARACHI: The Karachi stock market continued to remain motionless on Tuesday, as the meeting of ‘Friends of Pakistan’ on Monday was inconclusive and there was no change in Moody’s negative views for Pakistan’s credit rating, which forced investors to adopt a wait-and-see policy, analysts said.The day was marked by the lowest ever volume of 19,660 shares, which is a record in the history of the stock market. The Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) 100-share index remained unchanged at 9,184.09 points. The KSE 30 index and KMI 30 index also remained at 9,981.93 points and 10,003.99 points respectively. The market turnover went down 77.45 percent and traded 19,660 shares as compared to 87,200 shares traded in the previous session. The overall market capitalisation fell 0.03 percent and closed at Rs 2.826 trillion compared to Rs 2.827 trillion traded in the previous session. Out of seven companies, two closed in positive zone, three in negative while two remained unchanged. Like previous sessions, futures market continued to remain static as no activity was witnessed during the session. Analyst at Aziz Fida Hussein and Co said local bourses might soon witness a louder version of the ongoing silent protest as depicted by the turnover, which marginally managed to register five digit numbers, and it took 180 minutes after the opening bell for the first trade to take place. With no more commitments in the pipeline, friends have, as expected, opted for a more of consolatory attitude, delay in materialisation of any form of support is the way it looks it would be, thereby leaving no excuse for further extension of the freezing regime. Connecting unfreezing with the availability of the government fund is no longer a valid excuse, as the local bourses are no more the darling children of the government therefore expecting anything out of the way seems unrealistic as the authorities do not look keen in developing local equity markets for getting higher privatisation and the GDR proceeds rather they have shown comfort in using conventional tools, as displayed by recent step of going to the IMF.Analyst at Shahzad Chamdia Securities said investors remained concerned over delay in the market’s bailout plan of Rs 50 billion, despite various commitments from adviser to PM on finance.Southern Electric was the volume leader in the share market with 0.90 million shares as it closed at Rs 3.62 after opening at Rs 3.61 making a financial gain of one paisa. Gharibwal Cement traded 0.60 million shares as it closed at Rs 16.38 after opening at Rs 16.66 losing 28 paisas. Habib –ADM traded 0.30 million shares as it closed at Rs 9.69 after opening at Rs 9.99 losing 30 paisas. Mohammad Farooq traded 0.05 million shares as it closed at Rs 2.00 after opening at Rs 2.01 losing one paisa. Haydery Const traded 0.05 million shares as it closed at Rs 1.05 after opening at Rs 1.03 losing two paisas.