Small scrips trading keeps stock market unchanged

LAHORE - Business resumed on Thursday in Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) at a snail's pace and remained limited and flat throughout the day while volume of traded shares registered to an upward trend compared to Wednesday trading. The benchmark KSE 100-index witnessed officially no change closed at 9,187.10 points after investors remained engaged in gossiping and finding out the ways of floor mechanism removal.
Analysts are of the view that there would be no improvement in the market sentiment until a support fund is introduced there.
Marketing supporting fund was the hurdle which kept the market dry, dull and flat on Thursday. Now Pakistan has got the first tranche of $3.1b of a loan approved by the International Monetary Fund today, so one can hope that KSE would also get supporting fund from govt quarters, which had been promised for. The news revealed that tranche of $3.10b from the Fund has been transferred to State Bank's account.
While Foreign Ministry officials said that the second tranche of the $7.6 billion credit is expected to transfer in SBP account next year in March.
It is pertinent to note that IMF had promised a loan of $7.6 billion to help the country avert a balance of payment crisis.
This immediate package released from IMF means that Pakistan would avert a balance of payment crisis and be able to cover an international sovereign bond maturing in February.
Keeping in view the aid package State Bank has received, it is hoped that members of KSE board would now in a better position to decide about the fate of floor mechanism as soon as market received supporting fund. So far, lack of finance and floor mechanism have pushed the brokers and traders to sit aside and virtually there was no business activities in the bourse on Thursday as the investors stayed out of the trading arena to protect themselves from further losses.
The trading volume more grew in size of 82,500 shares as compared to 47,100 shares on Wednesday. National Assets was the scrip which led the market volumewise on Thursday.
Only 24 scrips traded in the bourse in which only three scrips recorded fall in the advance category while two scrips sustained losses and four scrips remained unchanged out of total 9 scrips traded.
The highest trading on Thursday was seen in the scrip of National Assets which lost its value to Re 0.02 closed at closed at Re 0.45 with volume of 51,500 shares followed by Dar-es-Salaam which remained unchanged closed at Rs 4.50 with volume of 10,000 shares. Al-Asif Sugar was the scrip which gained Re 0.11 closed at Rs 4.25 with volume of 6,000 shares. While Paramount Mod shares remained unchanged closed at Rs 9.25 with volume of 5,000 shares. Standard Chart Mod was the second scrip which lost its value though meagre on Thursday business of Re 0.01 closed at Rs 8.60 with volume of 5,000 shares. Habib ADM Ltd and Taxila Engg are the scrips which gained their values of Re 0.11 and Re 1.00 closed at Rs 9.50 and Rs 5.77 with volumes of 2,000 and 1,500 shares respectively. While Millat Tractor and Southern Electric scrips remained unchanged closed at Rs 163.92 and Rs 3.60 with volumes of 1,000 and 500 shares respectively traded on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the KSE-30 index remained unchanged and closed at 9981.93 points and KMI-30 index with no change closed at 11224.18 points.
While, Lahore Stock market witnessed downward trend as LSE-25 index closed at 2825.34 losing 0.02 points. Total turn over also witnessed lowest trend and only 400 shares were traded on Thursday trading. In all the 77 companies transacted on the day, no scrip could move up while only one scrip moved down and rates of all other scrips remained unchanged. JOVC was the scrip which lost its value of Re 0.18 closed at Rs 20.94 with volume of 400 shares followed.