LAHORE - After gaining overall 396.54 points during the last four days owing to better corporate results, the equity market witnessed a mild correction on the last trading day of the week. Due to this the benchmark KSE-100 index could not sustain 6,000 level and lost 53.35 points to close at 5969.09 index levels. On weekly basis, the benchmark index closed showed an increase of 6.1 per cent after touching the 6,000 psychological barrier on Thursday. Analyst Atif Zafar observed that the bullish trend was driven by strong corporate results and press release by MSCI regarding proposal to include the MSCI Pakistan Index in the MSCI Frontier Markets Index. Market capitalization of the bourse has now reached US$23.3 billion up 5% from last week. Analysts from Atlas Capital Market said that the outgoing week witnessed upward movement until Friday when, after reaching a one-month high of 6117.82, late profit-taking caused the market to close in the red zone. The benchmark KSE-100 index earned net gain of 343.15 points by the end of the week. The main reason attributed to this was the decision regarding the valuation and recognition of the gains and losses of investment portfolios of the companies, especially banks which carried the market's upward momentum for the first three days. This was augmented by some good corporate results, which also supported the market. The week started with a strong note on Monday with an increase of 150.83 points. Tuesday saw acceleration in the gains with a 62.90 points gain in the index. Wednesday followed the previous day's trajectory but the market trend accelerated again on Wednesday with 142.30 points gain together with the highest volume of the week. Friday started with a positive note with an intra-day gain of 95.38 points but the market ended in the negative territory with 53.35 points decline owing to institutional profit taking and negative news of a bomb blast in DI Khan. With the less-than-expected results of HBL giving rise to drop in positive expectations for other banks and results of OGDC and POL due in the coming week, the market is expected to remain mixed during he next week. However, positive expectations of OGDC results, if realized, can cause a smart rally, analysts pointed out. During the week, MSCI Barra announced that it would begin consultations with the investment community on a proposal to include the MSCI Pakistan Index in the MSCI Frontier Markets Index at the end of May 2009 to coincide with the May Semi-Annual Index Review. This was viewed as a positive development, helping market post 2.4% increase on Thursday. Selling from foreigners continued during the week as they bought shares worth US$7.8 million and sold US$19.4 million, resulting in net selling of US$11.6 million. Cumulative net selling post lifting of the floor has now reached US$201 million. Moreover, foreigners who held shares worth US$1.3 billion at the beginning of 2009, now hold Pakistan equities estimated around US$1.1 billion on account of eroding share values and offloading of shares. After strong showing by MCB, HBL and ICI during the week focus now turns towards the energy sector. HUBCO, APL, OGDC, POL, SSGC and SNGPL are among the major announcements in the coming week. Moreover, FABL and INDU would be announcing their results next week. Average daily volumes in the ready market stood at 203 million shares (US$83.6 million) versus 144 million shares (US$55.2 million) up 41%WoW. Moreover, CFS investment ended the week at Rs752 million with average annualized rate of 18.2%. On Friday, the market started on positive note, continuing the previous trend and touched 6117.82 points intra-day high. However, profit taking was witnessed in E&P, Fertilizer, Cement and Refineries sectors, which plunged the market on negative zone to 5929.14 points intra-day low, while losing 188.68 points from their intra day high. Thereafter, fresh buying in some blue chip scrips as OGDC, MCB, HBL, NBP, UBL, PTC, and KAPCO to closed 0.8% 1.1%, 5.4%, 2.2%, 5.7%, 3.7%, and 3.3% higher from their intra-day low which helped KSE-100 index to recover 39.95points. Ready market volume also depicted slightly decline by 2.5% to 230m shares as compared to last day volume.