20000212

RECORDER REPORT

KARACHI: The KSE-100 index nose-dived on Friday and values eroded sharply as pivotals led by the lead of PTCL, Hubco and PSO came under heavy selling pressure from weakholders and retail investors.

The selling remained unabated since the commencement of the proceedings. An upcountry punter was the largest seller in the market, which created a bandwagon effect and all the houses and retail investors offloaded their holdings.

All the counters received huge selling orders from the brokerage houses and dealers. The market received another setback when financial institutions too became sellers and booked available profits. All the scrips from fuel, energy, fertilizer and gas sectors shed heavily and at one point the index was down by over 92 points. However some of the short covering in PTCL, Hubco and Adamjee Insurance helped to recover some of the session's losses.

A leading trader said that the market besides receiving huge orders from the upcountry trader, fear of high badla rates affected the confidence of the investors. The badla rates received after the close of market showed that the investment and trading scrips were in the overbought zone.

The badla rate of PTCL ranged between 10 to 12.5 paisa, Hubco 8 to 11.5 paisa, Engro 85 to 88 paisa, PSO 85 to 90 paisa, Fauji 23 to 26 paisa and ICI six to 5.5 paisa. However, fresh badla rates received at 7.30 p.m. showed that several dealers had either lifted the deliveries of shares or after incurring losses had left the sings. The badla rate of PTCL was between 8 to 9 paisa, Hubco 4 to 7 paisa, Engro 61 to 68 paisa, PSO 70-75 paisa, Fauji 20 to 21 paisa and ICI 3-5 pasia.

Analysts said that the lower of badla rates showed that the market was likely to open slightly higher on Monday, however, it selling pressure from large trading houses emerged, the index might see a fresh fall of 20 to 30 points.

The KSE-100 index registered a fall of 81.25 points or 4.55 percent to 1705.39 from 1786.64 of Thursday. The volume amounted to 266.791 million shares as against 256.745 million shares of Thursday. The market capitalisation moved down to Rs 457.307 billion from Rs 457.301 billion of Thursday.

A dealer said that selling pressure dragged down the KSE-100 index and all the issues were affected. This created a lot of panic among those who were not ready to off-load but were pushed to sell in fear of major downfall.

Surprisingly, no support came in from any side and the bears availed of the opportunity quite freely. The index was minus 96 points at one point of time. Apparently the selling pressure was due to the long overbought positions.

PTCL on a trading of 107.606 million shares lost by Rs 1.70 to Rs 27.60, ICI on a volume of 35.835 million shares finished at Rs 12.75, showing a fall of 45 paisa, Hubco on a business of 33.476 million shares moved down by 85 paisa to Rs 26.75, FFC Jordan moved to Rs 14.15 from Rs 14.15 as nearly 12.754 million shares changed hands and PSO on a turnover of 12.326 million shares closed at Rs 204.50, lower by Rs 11.45.