Stock
Today close of trading mid day, the KSE-100 index was
at 14341.79(Minus
78.40)
KARACHI, May 10: At close of trading, the KSE-100 index was at 14414.90, down 198.69 points.
5 TOP GAINERS
& LOOSERS:
|
Unilever Food
|
Rs 56.64 |
UniLever Pak Ltd |
Rs (86.43) |
|
Colgate Palmolive
|
Rs 43.75 |
Rafhan Maize |
Rs (42.25) |
|
Allawasaya Tex
|
Rs 6.07 |
Bata (Pak) |
Rs (31.32) |
|
Sapphire Textile
|
Rs 5.72 |
Nestle Pakistan |
Rs (25.75) |
|
National Foods
|
Rs 4.76 |
Wyeth Pak Limited |
Rs (19.66) |
Stocks tumble by 193 points
KARACHI, May 10: Bears prowled on the stock market on Thursday,
knocking off values of most of the stocks. The KSE-100 index lost 193.40 points
to close at 14,420.19 points.But most market experts believed that bullish run-up had not yet lost steam and some negative news had dampened investor sentiments, which may not last a long time.
The net sales of $3.69 million worth equity on Wednesday had sent many investors scurrying to take profit, believing it to be an extension of foreign investors sell-off in most global markets.
Yet, the figures released by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan on Thursday went to comfort investors as the foreign outflow came to a halt, turning into net investment of $1.93 million in local equities.
A market participant said that slight negative noise could trigger selling by weak local investors, as they would want to book profit at the current high levels.
Samar Iqbal, equity dealer at Topline Securities observed that urea price reduction by local fertiliser companies coupled with institutional selling resulted in across the board selling at the market.
The news made the rounds that Fauji Fertiliser had slashed urea price by Rs145 per bag to Rs1,650 per bag. The reduction by 8 per cent was thought to impact the company’s earnings going forward.
Ayub Ansari, investment analyst at AKD Securities, believed that low demand coupled with urea inventory buildup was likely to be the pressing reasons for FFC reducing its urea prices. Fertiliser stocks fell across the board, as investors feared that other producers would follow FFC in cutting down prices.
According to Ahsan Mehanti, analyst at Arif Habib Corp, stocks closed bearish on investor concerns over outcome of new restrictions on US aid and assistance subject to certification by US Secretary of State.
The analysts observed that limited foreign interest, fall in global stocks and commodities pending eurozone debt crisis, outstanding circular debt issues in energy sector and uncertainty over federal budget announcements for banking sector played catalyst role in bearish sentiments amid consolidation in stocks across the board at KSE.
The KSE-30 index lost 187.49 points to 12,558.94 points and the market capitalisation shrank to Rs3.684 trillion, from Rs3.733 trillion the earlier day. In a total of 370 active stocks, 225 were losers, far ahead of the 94 gainers. Another 51 stocks remained unchanged.
Turnover in terms of volume decreased to 269 million shares from 319 million shares the day before. The trading value, however, rose to Rs11.5bn, from Rs10bn, evidencing not much of a change in heavily capitalised stocks.
UniLever Pak was the biggest loser for the day, down by Rs86.43 to Rs7,240, followed by Rafhan Maize giving up Rs42.25 to Rs3,004.75.
Among the gainers, UniLever Food added Rs56.64 to Rs3,195.65 and Colgate Palmolive was up by Rs43.75 to Rs918.75.
On the volume leader list, PTCL once again topped with 31m shares, down 87 paisa to Rs15.33. The second place was taken by D.G. Khan Cement, the only gainer among the top 10 volume leaders, up by 61 paisa to Rs46.83 on 29m shares.
Lotte Pak shed 17 paisa to Rs9.77 on 26m shares, Fatima Fertiliser was down 75 paisa to Rs26.14 on 23m shares, Engro Corporation which had firmed up in the previous two sessions, lost Rs5.26 to Rs113.67 on 17m shares, Jah Sidd Co, down 73 paisa to Rs16.73 on 17m shares, Engro Foods conceding Rs3.86 from its earlier gains to close at Rs73.45 on 7m shares, Arif Habib Co slipped 95 paisa to Rs35 on 7m shares, Lucky Cement down by sizeable Rs3.07 to Rs130.01 on 7m shares and Nishat Mills receding by Rs1.83 to Rs54.21 on 6m shares.
Urea prices reduced
KARACHI, May 10: Fauji Fertiliser and Engro reduced urea prices by
Rs145 and Rs150 per bag (inclusive of GST).Effective from May 11, 2012, the new price of urea bag of Fauji Fertilizer and Engro is Rs1,650 each.
Farhan Mahmood of Top Line Securities linked the price cut to record inventory available with local manufacturers (approx around 0.85 million tons), with more imported urea in pipeline “which will be available to farmers at a subsidised rate and hence would be cheaper than local brands”.
He said the price decline may improve sales of local brands whose price gap with imported urea is now being narrowed down to Rs40-50 per bag after the recent reduction.
However, he believed that the price decline could be temporary (for few months) and urea price may eventually revert back once inventory level normalises.
Furqan Punjani of BMA Capital said that the risk of significant annual urea sales decline for local players has now subsided because price differential between local and imported urea has now been reduced to Rs50 per bag only.
He said the barter deal with Iran to export one million tons of wheat in exchange for urea may be finalised on May 12 and “would result in import of hefty 600,000 tons of urea from Iran”.
Keeping in view that already 300,000 tons of urea import has been finalised by the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC), the additional supply from Iran will result in total urea imports of whooping 900,000 tons.
The country has already imported 800,000 tons in January-April 2012. Further imports will lead to urea availability of 1.8 million tons for 2012 (including opening inventory) as compared to 1.1 million tons in 2011.
Furqan said keeping urea demand constant at 6.2 million tons, the substantial availability of imported urea will result in “10 per cent year on year decline for local fertiliser players off take to 4.4 million tons”.
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