House of cards KSE lost 1/4 value; down 293.31 points

LAHORE - Karachi Stock Exchange went further down to 4.1 per cent on Tuesday on seventh consecutive day and raised alarming bells as bourse has already lost a quarter of its value within a short span of one-week time. It means, while shedding further 4.1 per cent, the bourse has total dipped down to 26.1 per cent within seven business drops. The Karachi bourse is demolishing its value with the passage of time in such a way that the bourse looks like a house of cards after the market regulators removed a "floor" on the country's benchmark indexes imposed to stop colossal losses to investors and brokers.
The KSE-100 on Tuesday shed further 293.31 points to close at 6,924.14 while seventeen scrips recorded gain, 165 landed in the negative column and no scrip remained unchanged out of a total of 182 companies.
Volume on Tuesday was a meagre 26.72 million shares " barely more than 10 percent of the average 250 million shares traded daily last year.
The Karachi Stock Exchange had been at a virtual halt since August, until full operations resumed on December 15 resulting the free fall of share prices.
Senior analysts and brokers are of the view that market would continue its slide until the serious liquidity crunch is resolved, presumably through government intervention. "Some drastic steps are needed to rescue the market," they opined and added that "Until then the market will remain under pressure."
Another analyst was of the view that continue receiving the battering of the bearish sentiments that hovered the bourses was though expected but investors were satisfied on the notion that government would certainly come forward to rescue the markets by injecting supporting funds and to boost the confidence of the investors but all hopes of recovering the market dashed to dust. While on the other hand, KSE board had been failed to come to a unanimous decision regard CFS issue which was also a major factor in dilapidating the market. Investors have firm belief that that trading in the markets would remain sloppy until the settlement of shares valuing Rs11 billion existing in the CFS market.
Volumewise leader remained Maple Leaf Cement shares.
Senior brokers and analysts are of the view that market would only get a respite if government concerned authorities come forward and take measures to rescue the market. They further revealed that government's oft-promised 20-billion-rupee (250-million-dollar) bailout package should be injected as early as possible because acute liquidity crunch is swallowing the values of bourses. Another broker was opined that this downward trend of bourses is likely to continue until government has not yet finalised the package and pumped in the liquidity.
On the other hand, LSE remaining lacklustre saw the LSE-index shedding 109.61 points and wrapped up at 1897.26 points.
Maple Leaf Cement was the leader volumewise on Tuesday which lost its value to Re 0.86 closed at Rs 2.73 with volume of 5,398,000 shares followed by NIB Bank which also lost Re 0.59 closed at Rs 3.64 with volume of 3,611,000 shares. Zeal Pak, TRG Pakistan and Arif Habib Bank also lost their values of Re 0.13, Re 0.36 and Re 0.97 closed at Re 0.47, Rs 1.62 and Rs 4.00 with volumes of 2,879,500, 2,083,000 and 1,734,000 shares respectively. Pakistan Cement, WorldCall Telecom and Pak PTA Ltd also shed their values of Re 0.45, Re 0.54 and Re 0.30 closed at Rs 2.08, Rs 2.99 and Rs 1.48 with volumes of 949,000, 922,000 and 899,000 shares respectively. Whereas Bank of Khyber and Soneri Bank lost most value compared to others of Re 1.00 each closed at Rs 4.74 and Rs 10.50 with volumes of 442,500 and 186,600 shares respectively.
Meanwhile, the KSE-30 index also dipped down and shed 376.32 points wrapped up at 6919.24 points while KMI-30 index also tumbled detaching 400.89 points closed at 8044.33 points.
While in Lahore Stock market, NIB remained leader volumewise on Tuesday where only two scrips recorded gains, twenty-two losses and 75 remained unchanged out of a total 899 companies. The turnover of LSE-25 witnessed upward trend and 3,229,400 shares were traded as compared to 2,350,700 shares on Monday.
NIB lost its value of Re 0.67 closed at Rs 3.58 with volume of 756,5000 shares followed by MLCF which also lost Re 0.80 closed at Rs 2.80 with volume of 681,000 shares. ZELP and PCCL also lost their values of Re 0.11 and Re 0.48 closed at Re 0.48 and Rs 2.01 with volumes of 674,000 and 207,000 shares traded respectively. All other main scrips also lost their values in the bourse.