KARACHI: Pakistani stocks ended lower on Monday, despite announcements of healthy earnings by many companies, and dealers said investors lacked interest on worries that Pakistan's upcoming budget may include some measures that could affect stock investment.
"The volumes are pretty low, and there seems to be lack of interest. It looks like the market is going through pre-budget jitters," said Khalid Iqbal Siddiqui, director at brokers Invest and Finance Securities.
"Investors are anticipating that the next budget may contain directions on further documentations... which could have a negative impact, and hence they are not that aggressive," he said.
The Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) benchmark 100-share index fell 0.32 percent, or 38.35 points, to close at 11,916.02.
Volume was at 45.49 million shares, down from 66.96 million shares traded on Friday. The government is expected to announce the budget for the2011/12 (July-June) fiscal year by the end of May or early June.
Dealers said healthy corporate results have failed to lift the market in the absence of major positive triggers.
Some dealers though expect positive results in the coming days, as large companies like the Oil and Gas Development Co Ltd , Pakistan State Oil and the National Bank of Pakistan are still to announce results for the quarter ended March 31 next week.
The rupee ended weaker amid a higher demand for the dollar, but dealers said healthy dollar inflows would keep the local unit steady in the coming days.
The rupee closed at 84.50/55 to the dollar, down from Friday’s close of 84.23/30.
"There were a couple of bigger payments today, which pushed the dollar demand higher and dragged the rupee lower," said a local brokerage house dealer.
"But I don't think there would be too much of a pressure on the rupee going forward, given healthy dollar inflows."
The rupee has performed strongly in recent months, hitting an 11-month high earlier this month, thanks largely to record inflow of remittances, strong foreign exchange reserves, healthy exports and a current account surplus, according to analysts and officials.
Remittances by overseas Pakistani increased by 22.37 percentto more than $8 billion in the first nine months of the 2010/11fiscal year, and in March a record $1.05 billion was received,according to data from the State Bank of Pakistan.
In the money market, overnight rates remained unchanged at11.10 percent, and dealers said they expected the central bankto mop up more funds from the liquid market on Tuesday.
On Monday, the State Bank of Pakistan mopped up 28.0 billionrupees from the market in four-day repo, but that failed to pushup rates.
"The volumes are pretty low, and there seems to be lack of interest. It looks like the market is going through pre-budget jitters," said Khalid Iqbal Siddiqui, director at brokers Invest and Finance Securities.
"Investors are anticipating that the next budget may contain directions on further documentations... which could have a negative impact, and hence they are not that aggressive," he said.
The Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) benchmark 100-share index fell 0.32 percent, or 38.35 points, to close at 11,916.02.
Volume was at 45.49 million shares, down from 66.96 million shares traded on Friday. The government is expected to announce the budget for the2011/12 (July-June) fiscal year by the end of May or early June.
Dealers said healthy corporate results have failed to lift the market in the absence of major positive triggers.
Some dealers though expect positive results in the coming days, as large companies like the Oil and Gas Development Co Ltd , Pakistan State Oil and the National Bank of Pakistan are still to announce results for the quarter ended March 31 next week.
The rupee ended weaker amid a higher demand for the dollar, but dealers said healthy dollar inflows would keep the local unit steady in the coming days.
The rupee closed at 84.50/55 to the dollar, down from Friday’s close of 84.23/30.
"There were a couple of bigger payments today, which pushed the dollar demand higher and dragged the rupee lower," said a local brokerage house dealer.
"But I don't think there would be too much of a pressure on the rupee going forward, given healthy dollar inflows."
The rupee has performed strongly in recent months, hitting an 11-month high earlier this month, thanks largely to record inflow of remittances, strong foreign exchange reserves, healthy exports and a current account surplus, according to analysts and officials.
Remittances by overseas Pakistani increased by 22.37 percentto more than $8 billion in the first nine months of the 2010/11fiscal year, and in March a record $1.05 billion was received,according to data from the State Bank of Pakistan.
In the money market, overnight rates remained unchanged at11.10 percent, and dealers said they expected the central bankto mop up more funds from the liquid market on Tuesday.
On Monday, the State Bank of Pakistan mopped up 28.0 billionrupees from the market in four-day repo, but that failed to pushup rates.
No comments:
Post a Comment