A lacklustre performance

The local share market on Thursday witnessed lacklustre performance due to shortage of liquidity, unavailability of any leverage product and prevailing economic and political situation. Although the market opened on a positive note and the index hit 9,168.56 points intra-day high level, up 80.86 points on the back of local investors' interest in some selective stocks in oil and banking sectors.
However, profit taking mainly by foreign investors in late hours minimised the intra-day gains and the index finally closed at 9,096.23 points with a nominal gain of 8.53 points. Trading activities further improved, as the volumes at ready counter increased to 103.789 million shares, as compared to 92.344 million shares traded on Wednesday.
The foreign investors remained net sellers of shares worth $958,898. The overall market capitalisation increased by Rs 4 billion to Rs 2.631 trillion. Trading took place in 402 scrips, out of which 201 closed in positive and 172 in negative while the value of 29 scrips remained unchanged.
Jahangir Siddiqui Co was the volume leader with 9.526 million shares and gained Rs 1.36 to close at Rs 31.34 followed by Arif Habib Sec. increased by Rs 1.59 to close at Rs 48.83 with 9.268 million shares. Pace (Pak) closed at Rs 5.74, up Re0.11 with 7.209 million shares.
In the banking sector, BoP lost Re0.36 to close at Rs 17.06 with 6.777 million shares while Silk Bank gained Re0.85 to close at Rs 5.11 with 2.752 million shares. Azgard Nine increased by Re0.54 to close at Rs 21.43 with 5.556 million shares. D.S. Ind surged by Re1.00 to close at Rs 3.85 with 5.487 million shares. Pervez Ahmed closed at Rs 5.28, up Re1.00, with 3.708 million shares. Pak PTA lost Re0.04 to close at Rs 7.54 with 3.171 million shares. Fauji Fertiliser Bin Qasim gained Re0.26 to close at Rs 26.10 with 2.613 million shares.
Unilever Food and Service Industries were the highest gainers and increased by Rs 16.33 and Rs 9.34 to close at Rs 1349.00 and Rs 287.41, respectively, while Bata (Pak) and Fateh Textile were the worst losers and declined by Rs 49.00 and Rs 25.00 to close at Rs 946.00 and Rs 565.00, respectively.
Khurram Schehzad, senior analyst at Invest Capital Securities, said that low volumes show investors lack of interest due to prevailing economic situation. The foreign investors are also cautious and preferring short term trading at the local share market. He said that the prevailing liquidity situation and unavailability of any leverage product restricted the trading activities and investors remained at the sidelines. The investors concerns over the hearing of NRO cases from December 07 also restricted them to take fresh positions, he added.