Index loses 24.16 points

Profit taking in late hours eroded the intra-day gains and the benchmark KSE-100 index finally closed at 7,051.77 points level with a net loss of 24.16 points on Thursday. The market opened on a positive note and the index hit 7,142.97 points at intra-day high level, up by 67.04 points, however, the index could not sustain that level due to profit taking.
Trading activities, however, improved as the volumes at ready counter increased to 145.560 million shares as compared to 94.969 million shares on Wednesday. The overall market capitalisation declined by Rs 7 billion to Rs 2.092 trillion. Trading took place in 291 scrips, out of which 174 closed in negative and 100 in positive while the value of 17 scrips remained unchanged.
DG Khan Cement was the star performer of the day with 16.859 million shares and gained Rs 1.27 to close at Rs 28.40. Lucky Cement, however, lost Re. 0.92 to close at Rs 57.78 with 9.312 million shares. The E&P giant, OGDC increased by Rs 1.60 to close at Rs 74.30 with 12.460 million shares. Jahangir Siddiqui Co gained Re. 0.33 to close at Rs 24.85 with 12.203 million shares. Arif Habib Sec surged by Re. 0.75 to close at Rs 29.25 with 9.510 million shares.
In the banking sector, NBP gained Re. 0.55 to close at Rs 64.82 with 8.411 million shares; however, MCB lost Rs 6.16 to close at Rs 140.77 with 6.176 million shares. PTCL gained Re. 0.29 to close at Rs 16.74 with 5.265 million shares. Nishat Mills lost Re. 0.26 to close at Rs 38.47 with 3.875 million shares. Azgard Nine declined by Re. 0.34 to close at Rs 22.17 with 3.829 million shares.
Bata (Pak) and Dreamworld were the highest gainers and gained Rs 19.17 and Rs 11.00 to close at Rs 559.17 and Rs 305.00 respectively while MCB Bank and Siemens Pak were the worst losers and lost Rs 6.16 and Rs 5.00 to close at Rs 140.77 and Rs 1019.00 respectively.
Hasnain Asghar Ali at Aziz Fidahusein Co said that the commitment of support extended by EU mainly by pledging healthy amount for IDPs and on preferential trade agreement, approval of support bill by the US besides high hopes of materialisation of other financial commitments' at various other forums, infused confidence amongst the seasoned market players, as was visible by gradual accumulation in the main board stocks available at decent discount.
Above expectation cut in T-bill rates and commitment by the Advisor on Finance of at least 100bps decline in upcoming monetary policy and further incentives for industries in the trade policy kept the optimism alive during the session.
With June closing getting closer the institutional fund managers stayed reluctant from taking fresh positions, high yielding stocks did invite institutional support of low magnitude mainly from the support fund, the local players however succeeded in pushing the likely institutional selling linked to bi-annual closing, from the private sector that would have come in, in case of weak posture.
Nevertheless low quantum profit taking sector and stock hedging did came in, positive momentum due to constant buying on intervals however allowed the sellers to off-load on strength, thereby allowing the benchmark to maintain positive stance. The strategy, however, failed mainly due to absence of leverage product, stagnation re-surfaced thereby leading to nervousness, the day end offloading by the day traders pushed the index to red zone, despite strong resistance, offered by placing big quantity bids in the stocks having heavy weight in the benchmark.