Stocks lose 124 points on polls uncertainty

KARACHI: The stock market came under renewed selling pressure on Friday after the lawmakers at the upper house adopted a resolution seeking the postponement of the Feb 8 general elections, which dampened the investor sentiment fearing further deterioration of the political environment.

Resultantly, the benchmark KSE 100-share index reversed its positive start and closed the weekend session in the red.

Topline Securities Ltd said the index largely traded in the positive zone, but the pressure was observed in the second half after the Senate news reached the market and the index fell to make an intraday low of 881 points.

However, some recovery was observed in the eleventh hour as investors wei­g­hed in the fact that the resolution was passed thin atten­dance and it is non-binding.

Major positive contributions to the index came from K-Electric, Service Ind­u­s­tries, The Searle Com­p­any Ltd, Habib Bank Ltd and Shell Pakistan Ltd, as they cumulatively contributed 112 points to the index.

On the flip side Fauji Fertiliser, Engro Corpor­ation, Pakistan Services Ltd, Bank Al Habib Ltd and Pakistan Tobacco lost value to weigh down on the index by 143 points.

Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corporation said the move may impact IMF talks and political stability.

The KSE-100 index closed at 64,514.90 points after losing 124.26 points or 0.19 per cent from the preceding session.

The overall trading volume, however, surged by 72.96pc to 949.55m sha­res. The traded value also jum­ped 25.72pc to Rs19.35bn on a day-on-day basis.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included K-Electric Ltd (481.11m shares), Worldcall Telecom Ltd (33.37m shares), Bank of Punjab (28.42m shares), Cnergyico Pk Ltd (27.08m shares) and Pakistan Telec­o­m­munication Comp­any Ltd (25.55m shares).

Companies registering the biggest increases in the­ir share prices in absolute terms were Nestle Pakistan Ltd (Rs200.00), Sapphire Fibre Ltd (Rs110.00), Pak Suzuki Mo­tor Company Ltd (Rs46.94), Mehmood Text­ile Mills Ltd (Rs35.00) and Sapphire Textile Mills Ltd (Rs34.38).

Companies registering the biggest decreases in their share prices in absolute terms were Unilever Pakistan Food Ltd (Rs150.00), Pakistan Serv­ices Ltd (Rs54.90), Ho­e­chst Pakistan Ltd (Rs50.00), Pa­k­istan Toba­cco Com­pany Ltd (Rs48.00) and Faisal Sp­i­nning Mills Ltd (Rs26.76).

Foreign investors were net buyers as they purcha­sed shares worth $0.06m.