Bears return to market on profit-taking

KARACHI - Karachi Stock Exchange lost the positive momentum on Friday amid profit taking activities and the KSE 100-index shed 27 points to close the index at 7,471 points.
Negative activity was witnessed in the overbought market as retail investors preferred profit taking amid international capital markets plunge on weak US data and job losses in June fearing possible selling from foreign investors.
Fall in the international oil prices to $67 per barrel, uncertainty over the outcome of Pak-IMF officials meeting on release of third tranche and minimal interest of institutional investors played a catalyst role in negative activity, said Ahsan Mehanti of Shahzad Chamdia Securities.
The index was opened in green zone with a gain of 42.30 points and at the end of the day closed at 7,471.28 points with a loss of 27.06 points. Trading activity was minimal as compared to the last trading session as the ready market volume came down to 181.567 million shares as compared to last trading sessions 195.946 million shares. Total trading value of the market remained 9.520b rupees on Friday against last sessions 10.116b rupees on Thursday.
Market capitalisation slightly decreased to Rs 2.205 trillion from Rs 2.213 trillion of last trading session. Out of only 288 active symbols at the KSE, 97 companies advanced, 159 declined and the worth of the shares of 31 cos remained unchanged.
DGKC was again the volume leader of the day with the trading of 23.337 million shares on Friday. Among other noted shares were JSCL with 19.297 million shares, Lucky Cement 14.447 million shares, OGDC 14.262m shares, AHSL 8.885m shares, Azgard Nine 8.154m shares, PTCL 7.621m shares, Engro Polymer 5.481 million shares, Pak Oilfields 4.726 million shares, United Bank 4.560m shares, Engro Chemicals 4.552m shares namely.
Fazal Textile was among the leading gainer at the stock market, up by Rs9/share to close at the Rs385 with a turnover of 100 shares, Exide Pak gained Rs7.78/share and closed at Rs168.37, Attock Refinery Rs6.79/share to close at Rs144.36, Lakson Tobacco added Rs6.46/share and its value was improved to Rs177, Pak Services gained Rs5.92/share to close at Rs124.34, Pak Refinery Limited also added Rs4.95/share and closed at Rs103.95.
On the other side, Unilever Pak down by Rs18.56/share and closed at Rs1,956.44 with a turnover of only 140 shares on Friday, followed by Attock Petroleum, down by Rs11.06/share and its value was decreased to Rs336.15, National Refinery lost Rs6.78/share to close at Rs227.02, ICI Pak down by Rs5.26/share and closed at Rs137.74, Sapphire Fiber lost Rs4.36/share, closing at Rs88.04, Atlas Honda down by Rs4/share to close at Rs90, Shezan International also lost Rs3.85/share and closed at Rs124.04.