Peshawar suicide attack hits market sentiments

KARACHI- Terror attack in Peshawar and whispers of likely delay in introducing the modified ready board leverage forced the market participants to revert to back-foot on Wednesday.
The benchmark 100-share index luckily sustained to close above 7,000 mark despite selling pressure in late hours of the trading session. The KSE-100 index shed 39.53 points to close at 7,047.25 points. Market witnessed days highest level of 7,159 points .
News of a bomb blast in Peshawar belled the bourse on a weak note. No interest was seen across the board during early hours of trading and KSE-100 index slipped south with little or no volume. However, lower levels saw punters, jobbers and few institutions entering blue-chip counters generating volumes, which brought about some semblance into the market that led to a gradual increase to forge an intra-day high of 1.02 percent or 72 points. As in previous sessions MCB, NBP and PPL were the highlight of the day which saw keen interest and good volumes. Nonetheless, Benchmark-100 index was unable to hold on to its upward momentum and the market skewed south to make a day low of 55.22 points or 0.78 percent, as key players were seen booking profits at inflated levels.
Trading activity was slightly lesser with a turnover of 140.973 million shares as compared to previous sessions 155.985m shares. Trading value of the market increased to 7.421 billion rupees from 6.885b rupees of last session.
Market capitalization came down to Rs2.088 trillion from Rs2.099 trillion. Of 319 active companies at the KSE, 95 managed to advance, 206 declined while the worth of the shares of 18 cos remained unchanged.
JSCL proved itself as a true volume leader for the past few days and remained on the top with a turnover of 13.530m shares, followed by Lucky Cement with 9.783m shares, DGKC 8.984m shares, MCB Bank 7.314m shares, Adamjee Insurance 6.313m shares, Pak Petroleum 5.690m shares, NBP 5.470m shares, AHSL 4.826m shares, Azgard Nine 4.597m shares, Orix Bank 4.557m shares.
Prominent gainers at the KSE include Treet Corporation, up by Rs9.33/share and closed at Rs248 with the trading of only 200 shares on Wednesday, Exide Pak gained Rs7.14/share, closing at Rs150.09, Atlas Battery added Rs6.51/share and its value was increased to Rs136.73, Ferozsons Lab up by Rs5/share, Atlas Honda (SPOT) added Rs4.83/share and closed at Rs113.89, MCB Bank added Rs4.36/share, closing at Rs143.97, National Refinery closed at Rs204.47, up by Rs4.22/share.
Conversely, Wyeth Pak lost Rs48.07/share and closed at Rs1,252.50, Fazal Textile down by Rs14.33/share with the trading of only 300 shares, Unilever Pak lost Rs9.99/share and closed at Rs1,950.04, Attock Petroleum down by Rs6.42/share and closed at Rs309.86, Pak Oilfields down by Rs4.79/share and its total value was decreased to Rs150.04, GlaxoSmithKline Pak lost Rs3.93/share and closed at Rs131.52.