KARACHI, Oct. 28, 2009 (Xinhua News Agency) -- Equities at Pakistan's Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) plunged into the red Wednesday taking cue from another terror attack in the northern parts of the country that killed at least 87 people, mostly women and children.
The benchmark KSE 100-Index declined by 63.85 points or 0.69 percent to end at 9,251.84 levels, KSE 30-Index plunged by 74.87 points to close at 9,754.62 levels, whereas KSE All Share Index shed 39.88 points to finish the day at 6,573.75 levels.
Market volumes, despite a negative closing, showed better numbers as an increment by 5.056 million shares was witnessed with a turnover of 171.396 million shares Wednesday as against volume numbers of 166.340 million shares traded the other day.
Main board was dominated by bearish numbers for the most part as out of total 441 scrips that exchanged hands during the course of the day, value of 224 issues nosedived into the red, 198 managed to advance, whereas prices of another 19 equities remained unchanged.
The market, after a green start, remained volatile during the course of the day where during initial moments the main index hit the intraday high of 9,364.50 points, after which, bears started to disrupt the bullish momentum and the main index paid several visits to both positive as well as negative territories.
At halfway stage, the news of bomb blast in Peshawar hit the Exchange which hampered the market sentiment big time and forced the main index to step into the red zone. Selling by investors further aggravated the situation and main index traveled further into the red territory where during the final minutes it touched the lowest level of the day of 9,238.26 points.
According to market analysts, poor law and order situation is denting the investor confidence, especially offshore investors are feeling the pressure created by the bomb blasts in major cities of the country. They further informed Xinhua that during the previous week, market saw net selling by the offshorers, and if the government doesn't put a lid on the terrorist activities then market would continue to shed value.
Arif Habib Securities Limited emerged as the top traded scrip of the day with a turnover of 18.281 million shares, Pakistan PTA Limited and DG Khan Cement followed with 17.019 million and 14.618 million shares respectively.
Rafhan Maize Products Limited was the major price gainer of the day with an increased by 40.00 rupees (one U.S. dollar equals 83 rupees) to end at 1,650.00 rupees.
On the contrary, Unilever (NYSE:UL) Food XD led the top losers with a decline by 61.49 rupees to rest at 1,168.51 rupees.
