LAHORE: Off to a rocky start the 100 Index saw reduced market participation in the early hours as market participants opted to stick to sidelines while they waited for the verdict of the Supreme Court (SC) on the duration of disqualification of legislators. Following the verdict, where the SC handed over a lifetime ban on politicians holding office after legal disqualification, the 100 Index extended its intraday slide down south and lost 259.85 points (-0.56 per cent) to close at 46,071.86.
Market Volume and Turnover remained on the back burner (down -31 per cent and -11 per cent respectively) on d/d basis as market volatility shot up amid rising political uncertainty. Utilities (40.8 per cent of total turnover – down 24.3 per cent on d/d basis) topped the volumetric charts, thanks to KEL (34.4 per cent of total turnover – down 23.94 on d/d basis) with Materials (28.3 per cent of total turnover – down 31.2 per cent on d/d basis) and Financials (15.4 per cent of total turnover – down 24.8 per cent on d/d basis) following two steps behind.
Major drag to the 100 Index performance came from Materials (-0.84 per cent), Industrials (-0.75 per cent) and Energy (-0.66 per cent) amid profit taking in LUCK (-2.47 per cent), DGKC (-3.26 per cent), ENGRO (-0.78 per cent), FCCL (-2.21 per cent), MLCF (-2.18 per cent), ICI (2.23 per cent), TRG (-1.21 per cent), OGDC (-0.89 per cent), PPL (-0.74 per cent) and PSO (-1.39 per cent) as profit taking took center stage. Rumors relating to a price decrease of cement in the southern region along with lack of clarity on provision of relief to fertiliser manufacturers in GIDC amendment bill 2018 led to heavy profit taking in Materials in particular Cements and Fertilizers. For the outgoing week, the 100 Index lost 565.76 points (-1.21 per cent) with main contribution to downside coming from HBL (-4.48 per cent), LUCK (-4.34 per cent) and UBL (-3.13 per cent) taking away -301 points.
Market participation for the 100 Index declined to 105.27 million shares (-31.3 per cent on d/d basis). Major contribution to total market volume came from KEL (+0.71 per cent), EPCL (-1.73 per cent) and FFL (+0.95 per cent) churning 57.62 million shares out of the All Share volume of 197.39 million shares. Daily traded value for the 100 Index declined to $50.02 million from $56.69 million in the previous session (-11.76 per cent on d/d basis); DGKC ($5.01 million), UBL ($4.53 million) and GHNL ($4.32 million) were among top contributors from the traded value perspective. Major contribution to the 100 Index downside came from LUCK (-2.47 per cent), UBL (-1.68 per cent), MCB (-1.65 per cent), DGKC (-3.26 per cent) and HBL (-0.73 per cent) taking away 162 points. On the flip side, DAWH (+1.21 per cent), HUBC (+0.69 per cent) and BAHL (+0.86 per cent) added 31 points. The 100 index is 22 per cent above its 52-week low of 37,736.73 reached on December 12, 2017 and 13 per cent below its 52-week high of 53,127.24 touched on May 25, 2017.
