Index loses another 26.88 points

A negative trend continued on the Karachi share market on Friday and the benchmark KSE-100 index lost another 26.88 points to close at 14,526.41 points. The market opened on a positive note and the index hit 14,568.91 points intra-day high, however the investors opted to book profit on the last trading day of the week and the index dropped into negative zone at 14,488.02 points intra-day low level.
Due to shorter trading hours, daily volumes remained low at 58.339 million shares as compared to 81.467 million shares traded on Thursday. Total market capitalisation reduced by Rs 6 billion to stand at Rs 3.708 trillion. Of the total 239 active stocks, 121 closed in negative and 98 in positive while the value of 20 stocks remained unchanged. PTCL was the volume leader with 7.288 million shares however lost Re 0.51 to close at Rs 14.26.
Investors' interest was seen in the cement sector, as DG Khan Cement, Maple Leaf Cement and Lucky Cement increased by Re 0.43, Re 0.49 and Re 0.40 to close at Rs 45.90, Rs 6.25 and Rs 129.29 with 6.811 million shares, 3.203 million shares and 1.9 million shares respectively. Jahangir Siddiqui Co decreased by Re 0.18 to close at Rs 16.04 with 5.888 million shares.
Engro Foods gained Re 0.94 to close at Rs 69.50 with 2.399 million shares. Arif Habib Corp inched up by Re 0.32 to close at Rs 33.48 with 2.127 million shares. Nishat Chunian Power increased by Re 0.48 to close at Rs 15.63 with 1.905 million shares. In the banking sector, Bank Al Habib gained Re 0.47 to close at Rs 29.54 with 1.659 million shares while NBP lost Re 0.01 to close at Rs 45.83 with 1.587 million shares.
Rafhan Maize and Unilever Pak were the top gainers increasing by Rs 176.4 and Rs 35 to close at Rs 3,710 and Rs 7,360 respectively, while Unilever Food and Shahtaj Sugar Mills were the top losers declining by Rs 40 and Rs 3.28 to close at Rs 2,850 and Rs 79.12 respectively. "Due to selling in PTC and OGDC market came down slightly with low volumes due to shorter trading hours", Samar Iqbal at Topline Securities said. Investors booked profit in PTC after the news of VSS that may affect its short term earnings. Cement stocks like DGKC and MLCF remained in the limelight as investors expect better June quarter results.