KARACHI, June 30: The single-session turnover figure on Monday on the Karachi stock market fell to an all-time low level so far of 11.485m shares owing to investor worries over the security forces operation in the tribal areas and fears of its negative fallout elsewhere in the country, analysts said.

The previous single-session trading volume was hit at 15.141m shares on Sept 3, 2001 after the implementation of T-3 trading system on the KSE.

The second lowest figure was hit at 16.565m shares on Oct 8, 2001 after the US attacked Afghanistan and the highest so far at 1.122 billion shares on April 16, 2004 owing to heavy buying in OGDC, PTCL at the time of their debut.

But the current terrible sluggishness reflects that the market is heading for a major crisis in the coming weeks if the law and order situation does not improve and investors sought other avenues of investment sans stocks.

Price changes were mostly fractional, barring a couple of leading shares, and were confined to mostly Rs2.25 to Rs4 as both bargain hunters and speculative traders just marked time and did not actively participate in the activity for obvious fears.

Stocks, therefore, ended the last session of the financial year on a subdue note as leading investors remained conspicuous by their absence owing to the presence of more than one psychological depressants with no positive news.

After opening unchanged at the weekend level, 12,353.19, the KSE 100-share index steadily declined to hit the session’s low of 12,256.37 but late covering purchases in some of the leading base shares, including MCB Bank, OGDC, allowed it to finish improved around 12,289.03, off 64.16 points.

“Although investors kept to the sidelines most of the time for obvious reasons but there was no panic selling from any quarter,” analyst Ahsan Mehanti said, adding: “Everyone is awaiting some good news, which is not around in backdrop of more negative news.”

It was in this background that the KASB Securities made a firm provisional debut at Rs77.17 (face value Rs10 at a premium of Rs57.50 per share), but ended lower at the session’s low of Rs73.32 on 0.277m shares on late selling owing to prevailing uncertain conditions. “In the backdrop of ongoing operation in the tribal areas, tight money supply position, and a weak rupee investors think twice to go for fresh stocks,” analyst Hasnain Asghar Ali said.

He said the lowering of low cap to one per cent seems to protect the market from a total collapse in the unfolding geo-political scenario and the absence of financial support.

“If all goes well on the political and national security fronts, the market could rebound from the current low on the strength of higher corporate announcements for the financial year ended June 30, another leading analyst Ashraf Zakaria predicts. But for the time being the market lacks even normal support as investors are out to get out of it instead of making fresh commitments even at the current lower levels, he added.

Most of covering purchases were confined to low-priced shares where the risk of further fall and gain was low.

Leading gainers, included Nestle Pakistan and Colgate Pakistan, up by Rs120 and Rs27.57, followed by American Insurance, United Brands, Dawood Bank, Chaudhry Textiles, Crescent Textiles, Dawood Hercules, Shell Pakistan and Diamond Industries, which rose by Rs4.05 to Rs7.64.

JS & Co and Attock Petroleum led the list of losers, off by Rs5.35 and 4.36. MCB Bank, Pakistan Oilfields, EFU General, PSO, Ferozsons Lab were others among the losers, off by Rs3.12 to 3.64. Trading volume fell to a new low as losers maintained a strong lead over the gainers at 157 to 53, with 23 shares holding on to the last levels.

Among the actives, Bank of Khyber was leading, steady 21 paisa at Rs14.20 on 1m shares, KESC, firm by 23 paisa at Rs5.47 also on 1m shares, MCB, off by Rs3.29 at Rs326.38 on 0.989m shares, OGDC, lower by Rs1.25 at Rs124.36 on 0.747m shares, Hub-Power, easy by 28 paisa at Rs28.60 on 0.524m shares, and JS & Co, off Rs5.35 at Rs530.15 on 0.415m shares.

Other actives were led by Azgard Nine, unchanged at Rs61.56 on 0.801m shares, D. S. Industries, lower by 51 paisa at Rs50.71 on 0.352m shares, JS Value Fund, easy by 19 paisa at Rs19.33 on 0.324m shares and Suraj Cotton, steady by four paisa at Rs53.50 on 0.276m shares.

FORWARD COUNTER: Engro Polymer led the list of actives on this counter, easy by Rs1.47 at Rs28.08 on 1m shares followed by Habib Bank, lower by Rs2.15 at Rs213.39 on 0.977m shares, NIB Bank, lower by 11 paisa at Rs11.57 on 0.52m shares and Pakistan Petroleum, off 2.52 at Rs249.87 also on 0.52m shares.