KARACHI, Jan 16: The share market suffered fresh widespread decline across-the-board on Friday on renewed selling triggered by a spate of negative news including SECP directive to brokerage houses to provide it with the list of their clients.

The KSE 100-share index shed another 266.65 points or 4.61 per cent at 5,511.93 eroding another Rs78 billion from the market capital in a light volume of 72m shares.

The directive came at a time when the market was already struggling to find its direction after the State Enterprise Fund started corrective steps to restore the investor confidence, said a floor broker.

“The SECP may have put its finger on the most sensitive nerve of the brokers linked to many a secrets,” said an analyst “but time was not that ideal”.

Already groaning under the weight of liquidity crunch, tension with India and weak annual earnings by some leading sectors, investors would think twice to buy a share ruling at a massively lower discount.

They continued to sell on bank, insurance and oil counters where the margins were still available in an effort to protect themselves from further losses. “One could cite a hundred reasons about the current performance of the market, but all may be for the sake of argument,” said a leading analyst. “But the chief reason is that nobody is inclined to put money in stocks as the bait of higher capital gains has lost its charm a long ago”.

After having broken the barrier of 6,000, the KSE 100-index could touch new lows in the coming sessions despite an abortive effort by the fund to revive the investor interest.

“The war with India may now be a remote possibility as both the contenders are playing with the sentiment of their general public for different reasons,” he said.

Leading losers were led by the overvalued issues, notably Pakistan Services, EFU Life, Unilever Pakistan, Siemens Pakistan and Rafhan Maize, which fell by Rs14.28 to Rs102.08, the largest fall being in Siemens Pakistan and Unilever Pakistan.

They were followed by MCB Bank, New Jubilee Insurance, National Refinery, PSO, Mari Gas, Pakistan Petroleum, Millat Tractors, Dawood Hercules, Engro Chemical, Packages and PECO, which were further marked down by Rs5.15 to Rs8.61.

Gainers were led by Usman Textiles and Exide Pakistan, up by Re1 and Rs3.35, while all others posted fractional gains.

Trading volume fell below the 100m share mark at 72m shares, reflecting the absence of leading investors as losers held a strong lead over the gainers at 210 to 25, with eight shares holding onto the last levels.

OGDC led the list of actives, off Rs2.60 at Rs49.40 on 6m shares followed by NIB Bank, easy by 49 paisa at Rs4.54 on 5m shares, PTCL, off Re1 at Rs14 on 4m shares, Al-Abbas Cement, lower by 98 paisa at Rs3.20 also on 4m shares, WorldCall Telecom, lower by 14 paisa at Rs3.38 on 3m shares and Fauji Fertiliser Bin Qasim, off 85 paisa at Rs12.75 also on 3m shares.

Pak PTA followed them, easy by 11 paisa at Rs1.97 on 3m shares, Hub-Power, off Re1 at Rs15.99 on 2m shares and TRG Pakistan, lower by 21 paisa at Rs2.23 on 2m shares.

FORWARD COUNTER: Oil shares led the market fall under lead of PSO, Pakistan Oilfields, Pakistan Petroleum followed by Habib Bank, Adamjee Insurance, which suffered fresh decline ranging from Rs3.42 to Rs5.86.

All others also fell where changed in the absence of buying support. No business was again transacted in any of them.

DEFAULTER COUNTER: Zeal Pak Cement came in for fresh selling and finished lower by six paisa at Rs0.47 on 5.790m shares followed by Japan Power, lower by 13 paisa at Rs1.48 on 0.551m shares and S.S. Oils, off 68 paisa at Rs2.30 on 0.132m shares.

But on the other hand Unity Modaraba managed to post a fractional rise of one paisa at Rs0.29 on 0.125m shares, Invest Bank, unchanged at Rs2.13 on 94,500 shares and Quice Foods, easy by three paisa at Rs1.02 on 35,500 shares. Some others also came in for stray bouts of buying and selling and fell on a mixed note.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Jan 16, 2009

Market at a glance

TONE: bearish, total listed 653, actives 243, inactive 410, plus 25, minus 210, unchanged eight

KSE 100-SHARE INDEX: previous 5,778.58, Friday’s 5,511.93, minus 266.65 points

MARKET CAPITAL: previous Rs1,821.819bn, Friday’s 1,743.936bn, minus 77.983bn

KSE 30-SHARE INDEX: previous 5,510.47, Friday’s 5,217.53, minus 292.94 points

KSE ALL SHARE INDEX: previous 4,315.91, Friday’s 4,130.61, minus 185.30 points

KMI 30-SHARE INDEX: previous 7,249.45, Friday’s 6,882.69, minus 366.76 points

TOP TEN: gainers Exide Pakistan Rs3.35, Usman Textiles Re1, Dominion Stock Fund Rs0.99, Atlas Fund Rs0.77, Noon Sugar Rs0.50.LOSERS: Unilever Pakistan Rs98.75, Siemens Pakistan Rs41, Pakistan Services Rs14.28, EFU Life Rs13.80, Attock Petroleum Rs9.18

TOTAL VOLUME: 72.263m shares

VOLUME LEADERS: Zeal Pak Cement 5.790m, OGDC 5.292m, NIB Bank 5.159m, PTCL 4.213m, Al-Abbas Cement 3.920m shares.