Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) Sheds 0.65pc Despite OGDC Swell

Shares at Karachi Stock Exchange ended lower Wednesday below 9,200 levels as after some intraday bullish activities on continued foreign buying; profit booking by local funds and companies in index heavy weights turned the index red however buying in OGDC restricted the index losses.

The benchmark KSE 100-Index declined 60.22 points to close at 9,144.76 levels, KSE 30-Index shed 59.71 points to end at 9,644.53, whereas KSE All Share Index dropped 41.70 points to finish at 6,485.07 levels.

Khurram Shehzad, Senior Research analyst at Invest Cap informed The Financial Daily, "Market was bullish in the beginning due to buying by foreign investors mainly in Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) but towards the end local funds went for booking profits which resulted in negative closing at the market".
Market is likely to show mixed trading activities in the coming days, he added.

Trading activities started on a positive note with a gain of 27 points; thereafter within half an hour after the opening bells index touched its intraday high of 9,328 points (+ve 123 points). Continued buying by the foreign investors then allowed the green numbers to sustain till around the mid-day. But then some pressure witnessed in the market as investors went for booking profits therefore after showing some resistance index finally went down into the red zone where at about 1510 PST it touched its lowest level of the day of 9,137 points (-ve 67 points) and closed just near those levels. Buying activity in the oil giant OGDC gave a major support to the index as it ended Rs1.89 up at Rs107.97 contributing 19 points to the index.

Though market ended on a negative note, but foreign players continued their buying activity as according to the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited (NCCPL), there was a net foreign buying of $6.18 million.

On the other hand, local mutual funds did a net selling of $4.98 million, it added. Volumes were further reduced as 161.9 million shares traded in the overall market which is 22 million shares less as compared to a turnover of 184 million shares a day earlier. Out of total 392 active issues, 235 declined and 139 advanced while 18 issues remained unchanged.