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Index sheds 116.25 points

Karachi share market on Wednesday ended lower amid institutional profit-taking in an overbought market and the KSE-100 index lost 116.25 points to close at 21,342.65 points against 21,458.90 points Wednesday. The KSE-100 index also hit intraday high level of 21,621.82 points and a low level of 21,306.23 points. Trading activity remained sluggish and the volume at ready counter decreased to 472.973 million shares as compared to 572.42 million shares Wednesday. "After a volatile session, the market came down marginally following the bearish trend in the global markets," said Samar Iqbal Senior Manager Equity Sales at Topline. Profit taking was seen in heavyweights - OGDC, PPL, PTC and MCB. However fertiliser stocks performed well due to institutional buying, she said and added that despite bearish trend volume once again remained above average. Out of 388 active scrips, 122 went up, 238 went down, while that of 28 scrips remained unchanged. Due to negative trend, market capitalisation also decreased by Rs 50 billion to Rs 5.16 trillion from Rs 5.21trillion. Among Top Ten scrips, Dewan Cement was the volume leader with 49.47 million shares. It gained Re 0.74 to close at Rs 7.86 per share. With a decline of Re 0.36, Fauji Cement fell to Rs 11.70 on 27.12 million shares. TRG Pakistan shed Re 0.06 to close at Rs 10.30 on a volume of 21.04 million shares. Some 20.75 million shares of Lotte Chemical were traded and its share price decreased by Re 0.32 to close at Rs 8.31 per share. Maple Leaf Cement declined by Re 0.56 to close at Rs 21.31 on 19.22 million shares. In addition, some 17.67 million shares of KESC were traded and its share price fell by Re 0.20 to Rs 6.72 per share. Pakgen Power gained Rs 1.02 to Rs 25.82 on 17.6 million shares. With an increase of Rs 7.01, Engro Corporation closed at Rs 148.55 on 16.8 million shares. Share price of Jah Sidd Co remained stable at Rs 12.44 per share on 16.76 million trading volume. PTCL A closed at Rs 20.97, down by Re 0.08 on 13.88 million shares. Unilever Food and Island Textile were the top gainers with their share prices increasing by Rs 240.00 and Rs 29.98 to close at Rs 5,040.00 and Rs 729.99, respectively. Nestle Pak and Bata (Pak) were the worst losers declining by Rs 200.00 and Rs 95.00 to close at Rs 6,500.00 and Rs 1,805.00, respectively. Commenting on the market, Ahsan Mehanti an analysts and Director Arif Habib Investments said that Pakistan stocks closed lower amid institutional profit taking in overbought market. "Consolidation continued after fall in global stocks and limited foreign interest to support the post-election rally at KSE," he added. Mehanti said sentiments at Karachi stock market remained bearish amid concerns for federal budget uncertainty. "Investors awaited announcement for $15 billion Saudi bailout to ease circular debt issues in Pakistan energy sector likely to avoid IMF package," he said and added that concerns for rising budget deficit and fall in global commodities played a catalyst role in bearish sentiments at KSE ahead of IMF repayments.
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LSE index declines by 9.3 points

Mixed sentiments prevailed on the Lahore Stock Exchange on Thursday where equities moved both ways and finally settled in negative zone amid decreased trading turnover. The LSE-25 index lost 9.30 points to close at 4558.63 against 4567.93 of Wednesday, while transaction volume was squeezed to 7.386 million shares compared with last day volume of 11.4 million shares. The market was opened on a positive sign but could not sustain and remained directionless during early hours of trading. Later, the market kept on moving up and down throughout the day and finally ended in negative zone. The experts were of the view that market had been consistently showing handsome gains for the last few days after the general elections and thus technical correction had become due. The investors offloaded their holdings to pocket the available margin. Pakistan Oil Fields, National Refinery, Attock Refinery of the oil sector helped market avert more declines while Engro Corporation, Fauji Fertiliser, Dawood Hercules Corporation, United Bank, Habib Bank, Engro Foods, Pak Elektron, and Dewan Cement also supported market sentiments. However, profit taking was seen in PPL, Nishat Mills, Nishat Chunian, Highnoon Laboratories, PSO, Byco Petroleum, DG Khan Cement, Maple Leaf Cement, Fauji Cement, Lafarge Pakistan Cement, MCB Bank, Bank of Punjab, Adamjee Insurance, Thal Limited, and Sui Northern, Lotte Chemical and PIAC. The losers were more than the gainers. Of 109 active issues, 28 companies registered gains, 40 suffered losses while 41 companies remained unchanged. Pakistan Oil Fields gained Rs 10.74, National Refinery was improved by Rs 8.83, Engro Corporation was appreciated by Rs 6.93, while Fauji Fertiliser and United Bank were up by Rs 4.26 and Rs 2.85, respectively. MCB Bank lost Rs 4.85, PPL was declined by Rs 4.57, Nishat Mills shed Rs 3.7 while Highnoon Laboratories and PSO were down by Rs 2.9 and Rs 2.68, respectively. Maple Leaf Cement with trading of 1.571 million shares topped the volume leaders followed by Fauji Cement with 928,000 shares.
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ISE index falls by 58.21 points

Bears retuned in the driving seat at the Islamabad Stock Exchange (ISE) where losers outclassed gainers amid decrease in index. ISE Ten Index showed a decrease of 58.21 points as the ISE Ten Index moved from 3,980.57 to 3,922.36 points. The overall turnover amounted to 30,000 shares as compared to previous volume of 468,000 shares. Total 149 companies participated in buying and selling activity. Majority of stocks (96) closed in negative territory, 53 closed in positive territory, whereas no company remained pegged to its overnight levels. The volume of Fauji Cement was 15,000 shares. The volume of Lafrage Pakistan Cement was 5,000 shares. The volume of PTCL was 10,000 shares.
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BRIndex30 loses 79.74 points

On Thursday, BRIndex30 opened at 13,929.15. It touched an intraday high of 14,074.1 and an intraday low of 13,775.08 and closed at 13,849.41, which was -79.74 points or -0.57 percent lower than previous close. Total volume was 311,842,900, which was 65.93 percent of KSE All share volume and 110.51 percent of KSE 100 volume. The KSE All Share volume was 472,973,850 and KSE 100 volume was 282,192,080. BR Commercial Banks Index closed at 4,374.02 with a net negative change of -60.63 points or a percentage change of -1.37 and a total turnover of 31,105,300. BR Cement Index closed at 1,988.96 with a net positive change of 1.41 points or a percentage change of 0.07 and a total turnover of 133,478,000. BR Oil and Gas Index closed at 3,116.27 with a net negative change of -43.66 points or a percentage change of -1.38 and a total turnover of 34,565,300. BR Tech & Comm Index closed at 594.31 with a net negative change of -6.74 points or a percentage change of -1.12 and a total turnover of 53,307,500. BR Power Generation and Distribution Index closed at 3,907.81 with a net negative change of -42.19 points or a percentage change of -1.07 and a total turnover of 45,682,500.
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