RECORDER REPORT
KARACHI: The new week commenced on a negative note at Karachi Stock Exchange Monday and the 100-Index shed 155 points to close at 29,094 points against 29,249 points Friday.
During the intraday trading, the index touched 29,376 highest and 29,048 lowest levels. The trading side also witnessed a negative trend and the volumes at the ready counter settled lower at 295.573 million shares from 309.799 million shares. The market capitalisation followed suit and slipped to Rs6.999 trillion against Rs7.034 trillion.
Commenting on the market performance, Samar Iqbal, analyst at Topline Securities said the local bourse witnessed some profit-taking above 29,000 points after a rise of 3 percent last week. Decline in global equity markets forced the investors to stay cautious as depicted by 29 percent drop in volumes of Rs11.5bn, she added.
She said selling pressure in MCB and UBL contributed 85 points to total loss of 155 points to benchmark index. Investors also booked profits in oil stocks and cement sector. Whereas, institutional support helped PSO and EFERT to report gains.
Out of total 379 active stocks, 154 witnessed positive trend, 201 negative and that of 24 remained unchanged.
Two top gainers for the day were Rafhan Maize XD, which shot up by Rs473.50 to Rs9943.50 and Bata (Pak) SPOT, which climbed by Rs155 to Rs3255. The top losers were Unilever Foods XD, which shed Rs270.85 to Rs8686.86 and Wyeth Pak, which lost Rs190 to Rs4115.
Among the top 10 companies, Lafarge Pak led the tally with 41m shares. It lost two paisa to Rs13.72; Jahangir Siddiqui Company gained 75 paisa to Rs13.20 on 40m shares; and JS Bank improved by 93 paisa to settle at Rs5.83 on 21m shares.
Pace (Pak) lost four paisa to close at Rs5.08 on 8m shares; Bank of Punjab witnessed a loss of 23 paisa to reach Rs10.87 on 8m shares; and WorldCall Telecom gained 16 paisa to close at Rs2.77 on 7m shares.
Lotte Chemical improved by 11 paisa to close at Rs7.91 on 7m shares; Engro Fertilizer moved up by Rs2.48 to close at Rs69.98 on 6m shares; Pak Elektron stayed put at Rs24.45 on 6m shares; and K-Electric gained four paisa to close at Rs6.63 on 6m shares.
