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Power hike proposal claims 99 pts off KSE 100-share index

KARACHI: The Karachi stock market faced a bearish trading session on Tuesday as investors offloaded their holdings on concerns over inflation after power hike proposal presented by the Ministry of Finance in Islamabad. Federal Finance Minister Shaukat Tareen had announced the proposal on Monday.

The Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) 100-share index shed by 99.33 points or 1.07 percent to close at 9,204.98 points as compared to the previous session’s 9,304.31 points. The KSE 30-share index closed at 9,704.24 points with a loss of 117.31 points. The KMI 30 index closed at 13,328.28 points with a decline of 108.53 points.

Analysts said the trading session was marked by the profit-taking. The ongoing uncertain political situation in the country and expectations of start of hearing of National Reconciliation Ordinance related cases by the Supreme Court of Pakistan by the end of the current month dampened the spirit of investors.

The market turnover went down by 6.40 percent and traded 184.03 million shares as compared with previous session’s 196.62 million shares. The overall market capitalisation went down by 1.07 percent trading Rs 2.657 trillion as against the previous session’s Rs 2.686 trillion. Out of a total of 402 companies, 143 closed in the positive zone, 241 in negative and 18 remained unchanged. “Stock prices after appreciating 4 percent in previous two sessions plunged mainly due to profit-taking by investors,” said analyst at Topline Sec Furqan Punjani. “Uncertainty on the political front forced institutions and individual investors to remain on the selling side while anticipated cut in discount rate also couldn’t change the mood of investors.”

“Limited foreign interest, rising non-performing loans in the bank sector and profit-taking in the oil and fertilizer sectors played a catalyst role in the negative activity,” said senior analyst at Shahzad Chamdia Sec Ahsan Mehanti.

The KSE 100-share index opened in the green zone with a gain of 42.56 points and at the end of the day closed at 9,204.98 points with a loss of 99.33 points. “Increase in activity by both the local and foreign investors infused confidence among the other sidelined participants allowing them to leave the law and order and political issues to the concerned authorities’ in command and capitalise on available discounts at the market available mainly due to recent foreign sell-off that led to low volume price erosion,” said analyst at Aziz Fida Huseina and Co Husnein Asghar Ali. staff report

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