Zubair Yaqoob
Karachi
Third consecutive market halt was met by one of the largest pull backs in recent times at the bourse. Initially market opened on a negative note with -614pts and 0.86M traded at opening bell. Situation worsened and caused the halt at -1683pts by 9:25 AM and 25M shares traded on KSE100. Market re-opened at -1267pts, registering a recovery of 416pts and continued the path of recovery by the close of 1st session. Second session opened -347pts, which showed a recovery of 1336pts, however, the index swung back into negative territory and yet again managed to post a recovery in MoC when the index posted a gain of 256pts (unadjusted). Recovery was mainly seen in Oil & Gas, Banking and Cement sectors which have heavy weightage on Index. Market recovery largely banked on improving sentiments in regional and global markets, whereby India and South Korea were seen banning short sale. In addition, international crude price also posted an intra-day gain of ~5% that helped investors make a positive view on pertinent stocks. The Index closed at 36,060pts as against 35,957pts showing an increase of 104pts (+0.3% DoD).
