Business

Holiday mood weighs down market

Market remained volatile, with both indices falling during most part of the week. The ASPI (All Share Price Index) fell by 5.66% or 122.1 points compared to last week, to close at 2033.3 points.

Meanwhile the MPI (Milanka Price Index) slipped by 4.85% or 135.1 points to close the week at 2652.9 points.

Strong foreign participation enabled Dialog to become the highest traded stock for the week, with 14.9 million shares trading. Sizable quantities went through on Thursday amounting to 9.2 million shares. The counter saw its share price slip notably this week by 7% compared to last week, closing at Rs.16.75 per share on Friday. The share traded within the range of Rs.17.75 and Rs.16.75 per share for the week, while contributing Rs.254.3million towards weekly turnover.

LIOC shares were shoved into the spotlight this week, amid an adverse report published in the print media. Trading was halted on Tuesday, however the stock price held ground with trading commencing from Wednesday onwards.

The counter saw 1.4 million shares trading this week, with share price remaining unchanged at Rs.36.50 per share.

Renewed interest was witnessed in healthcare sector stock, Asha Central with 1.5 million of its shares trading this week. The share price fell by 9.8% Week on Week (WoW) to close the week at Rs.25.25per share, contributing Rs. 46.3 million towards weekly turnover.

Notable contributions towards turnover came from JKH and HNB counters this week. Blue chip JKH contributed Rs.129 million towards weekly turnover with 0.87 million shares trading.

The share prices saw a 5.4% WoW decline to close the week at Rs.144.5 per share, with the counter trading at a high of Rs.152.50 and a low of Rs.144 per share for the week. HNB contributed Rs.65.7 million towards total turnover with 0.54 million shares trading for the week. The counter closed the week at Rs.119 per share, showing a slight 2.6% dip compared to last week's closing level.

Investor appetite remained on Tokyo Cement (non voting) shares for yet another week with 2.1 million shares trading. The counter, close on Friday at Rs.12.75 per share, trades within the range of Rs.13.75 and Rs.12.50 per share. The contribution towards weekly turnover amounted to Rs.27.6 million.

Weekly turnover stood at Rs.970.2 million, which was much below last week's turnover of Rs.1.24 billion (recorded during 4 trading days) amid the holiday mood. The average daily turnover showed a considerable dip of 37.2% compared to last week to stand at Rs.194million.

Foreign activity increased this week with foreign participation standing at 31.2% of total activity compared to last week's participation of 27.3%.

Foreign purchases stood at Rs.263.4 million for the week, while foreign sales stood at Rs.341 million. The major contribution towards both foreign sales and purchases came on Thursday from the trade of Dialog share. A net foreign outflow was witnessed for the week amounting to Rs.77.6 million. Dialog, Sierra, Tokyo cement (non voting), Royal Ceramics and Asha Central were the highest traded stock for the week.

Point of View take up opportunities when the time is right. As expected by us market activity remained low this week with turnover falling sizably. On Friday turnover stood at a mere Rs.74 million, which was the lowest recorded since June 16th this year (turnover Rs.71 million).

With the holiday mood continuing we expect the market to remain sluggish in the coming week. However an upsurge in violence in the North East could lead to the market becoming volatile.

Thus we advise clients to take up trading positions, with bargain hunting opportunities coming through. As highlighted previously we believe some fundamentally sound counters are trading at attractive levels thus we reiterate our view, that investors should look towards averaging their costs through careful accumulation.

Note: "This information has been compiled from sources that we believe to be reliable but we do not hold ourselves responsible for its completeness or accuracy. No matter published herein create any liability of any kind of HNB Stockbrokers (Private) Limited or its associates.