Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) witnessed bearish traded on Tuesday where the main index gave away the 11,800 levels as dealers said the market recorded technical correction after a massive rally the other day.
The benchmark KSE 100-Index fell by 0.89 percent or 106.16 points to close at 11,762.72 levels, KSE All Share Index declined by 0.85 percent or 69.96 points to end at 8,145.88, KSE 30-Index shed 0.97 percent or 109.58 points to conclude at 11,133.82. whereas KMI 30-Index slumped by 1.11 percent or 246.11 points to finish the day at 21,920.67 levels here.
Market started the day amid bullish moves where the main index scampered past the psychological levels of 12,000 and soon it hit the intraday highest level of 12,046.89.
However, the main index faced stiff resistance at the intraday high above the psychological 120,000 levels and a technical correctional phase started which deprived the key index of its initial gains and pushed it into the red zone. The main index continued losing value during the rest of the day where in the second half of the trading session it hit the lowest level of the day of 11,724.46 before closing a little higher.
Market analysts are of the view that the market witnessed brief correction on Tuesday after testing major resistance level.
Syed Faran Rizvi, Research Analyst at Invisor Securities, told Xinhua that bulls are still quite strong in the market and the main index was in consolidation phase at the current levels.
He said that after the consolidation phase, the key index would target towards 12,468 levels in coming days.
"Investors are recommended to stay long in the market as penetrating below 11,700 will push market towards 11,556," he added.
Muhammad Salman Memon, Research Analyst at HM Idrees H Adam, told Xinhua that during the current week the market trend looks range bound especially after Monday's impressive bullish charge.
He further stated that the investors should adopt sideline policy for Wednesday and keep a close look at the main index's moves before making any investment strategy.
He also advised them to refrain from taking exposure in the fertilizer stocks saying the sector looks overbought for now.
"If market maintains 11,700 levels then investors may buy positions with using stop loss target at 12,100 but if market breaks 11,700 then it may touch 11,200 again," he highlighted.
Market volumes reduced by 16.731 million shares to 84.404 million shares on Tuesday as against turnovers of 101.135 million shares recorded the other day as smaller investors anticipated a correctional phase on Tuesday and remained sidelined.
Market capitalization fell by 26.384 billion rupees (303.270 million U.S. dollars) to 3.072 trillion rupees (35.31 billion U.S. dollars) on Tuesday when compared with a market capitalization of 3.098 trillion rupees (35.61 billion U.S. dollars) reported on Monday.
In an important development, the Government of Pakistan has decided not to take up the final 3.7 billion U.S. dollars tranche of the International Monetary Fund loan programme after rejecting strict reform demands thus virtually ending the standby program.
Pakistani Finance Minister Abdul Hafeez Shaikh told a foreign daily Tuesday that the IMF program's conditions were a little too tough to meet therefore the Islamabad had decided to pursue a home- grown reforms program.
As per the figures released by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited for Tuesday, the foreign investors started the month of November with a net buying of 175.746 million rupees (2 million U.S. dollars) thus bucking the selling trend of the recent past.
In broader market, a total of 342 companies changed hands during the course of the day where prices of 163 issues declined, 70 advanced, whereas values of 109 other scrips stayed unchanged at previous day's levels.
Fertilizer sector was once again in the limelight but this time investors were seen selling their positions on Tuesday as three of the top five traded companies included fertilizer companies. Fatima Fertilizer Company led the top traded companies of the day with trading of 14.996 million shares after dropping 1.23 rupees per share, followed by Fauji Fertilizer Company (-4.16 rupees), Fauji Fertilizer Bin Qasim Limited (-1.98 rupees), Jahangir Siddiqui Company Limited (-0.23 rupees), and F Credict & Investment (-0.29 rupees) with turnovers of 8.413 million, 6.232 million, 5.833 million, and 5.700 million shares respectively.
Unilever Pak Foods led the top price gainers of the day with 29. 79-rupee (34.24 U.S. cents) increment in its per share price that ended the day at 1,673.33 rupees (19.23 U.S. dollars) while on the other hand Nestle Pakistan topped the major losers with 83.82- rupee (96.34 U.S. cents) decline to finish the day at 3,209.18 rupees (36.88 U.S. dollars).
