Profit taking in the banking and cement sectors restricted the KSE-100 Index on Wednesday from crossing the 11000 points mark, as it closed at 10812 level, losing 57.46 points. The KSE-30 Index also shed 81 points, closing at 13276.44 points level.
The market opened on a positive note and the KSE-100 index hit the 10964.98 points intra-day high, and remained in the green most of the day on reports regarding OGDC GDS issue. However, the investors opted for profit taking at available margins, which pushed the index down to 10799.70 points intra-day low. Picic was overall volume leader with 24.950 million shares, followed by PTCL with 22.708 million shares.
The ready market volume rose to 165.287 million shares against 140.433 million shares of Tuesday, while the volume at futures market increased to 64.014 million shares from 52.863 million shares. The overall market capitalisation increased by Rs 86 billion to Rs 2.977 trillion.
The broader market was in favour of bears with 169 scrips closing in negative column and 123 scrips closing in positive column, while value of 57 scrips remained unchanged.
Asad Abdul Razzak, analyst at Live Securities, said that banking sector depicted declining trend and contributed negatively to the total index's decline. NBP, Bank Alfalah, BoP and MCB posted 2.1 percent, 0.6 percent, 0.7 percent and 2.4 percent respective declines to close at Rs 260.15, Rs 48.50, Rs 100.20 and Rs 256.00. However, Picic gained 4.1 percent on rumours of its acquisition by a foreign bank. Moreover, the scrip remained the volume leader at 24.950 million shares. PTCL also closed in the green at Rs 47.05, but remained 2.6 percent lower from its day's high due to profit taking.
Notable cement scrips closed in the negative zones. D G Khan Cement, Lucky Cement and Fauji Cement depicted declines at 0.8 percent, 2.2 percent and 3.1 percent respectively.
Saima Naz, analyst at Atlas Capital Market, said that after starting on a positive note, the market nose-dived and maintained its topsy-turvy behaviour throughout the day on the back of continuous profit taking by investors. For most of the day, the market moved between neutral to positive zone. However, it came down during last hour of trading session and finally managed to close at 10811.86 level, losing 57.46 points.
The market was supported by few of the banks, along with E&P scrips where POL posted a gain of Rs 2.6. Banks surged on the back of news regarding their mergers and acquisitions. Picic was the highest volume contributor throughout the day, surging by Rs 2.85, followed by ACBL that posted a gain of Rs 1.25 and NIB that closed at its upper circuit.
Bosicor Pakistan after the news of its TFC issue of $2.6 billion for expansion purposes touched upper circuit. Ahsan Mehanti, CEO of Shehzad Chamdia Securities, said that profit taking was witnessed in NBP following the declining share prices of Bank Al Jazeera in Saudi Market. Profit taking was also witnessed in cement scrips due to declining prices of cement.
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