Index loses 79.32 points

Karachi stock market on Tuesday posted bearish trend due to heavy selling pressure by local as well as foreign investors. As a result, the KSE-100 index lost 79.32 points to close at 10,208.82 point from 10,288.14 points. However, trading volume at the ready counter increased to 111.098 million shares as compared to 72.35 million shares traded on Monday.
The futures market turnover also presented some improvement as 2.9 million shares were traded against 2.15 million shares previously. Market capitalisation declined by Rs 22.841 billion to Rs 2.885 trillion from Rs 2.908 trillion. Trading took place in 422 shares, out of which 248 shares closed in the negative, 156 in the positive, and value of 18 shares remained unchanged. Banking and cement sectors were the leading sectors.
Lotte Pakistan was the volume leader with 19.71 million shares and lost Rs 0.75 to close at Rs 10.57. NIB Pakistan decreased by Rs 0.21 to close at Rs 3.82 with 9.052 million shares. Lafarge Pakistan closed at Rs 3.15, down by Rs 0.25 with 7.21 million shares. TRG Pakistan lost Rs 0.42 to close at Rs 4.37 with trading volume of 5.37 million shares. Azgard Nine lost Rs 0.61 to close at Rs 14.92 with 5.04 million shares.
With 4.5 million shares, WorldCall Telecom lost Rs 0.20 to close at Rs 3.85. Bank of Punjab closed at Rs 15.00, down by Rs 0.26 with 3.99 million shares. DG Khan Cement lost Rs 0.72 to close at Rs 25.87 with 3.7 million shares. Jah Sidd Co decreased by Rs 0.13 to close at Rs 17.56 with 3.57 million shares. Silk Bank closed at Rs 3.30, down by Rs 0.10 with 2.83 million shares.
Siemens Pak Engg and Bhanero Textile were the highest gainers and gained Rs 53.60 and Rs 9.33 to close at Rs 1,178.60 and Rs 218 respectively, while Rafhan Maize and Colgate Palmolive were the worst losers and lost Rs 73.00 and Rs 25.83 to close at Rs 1,457.00 and Rs 529.17 respectively.
Analysts said that several reasons were responsible for the negative trend in the market and was likely to continue till release of stock market support fund. They said that intense selling pressure was witnessed on uncertainty in European debt crisis, and most Asian capital markets declined on foreign selling. Fall in international oil prices, limited institutional support & rising global capital market uncertainty played catalyst role in negative activity at KSE, they added.