Bearish trend continues

Karachi Share Market ended lower again on second day of the week on Tuesday amid the security concerns in the country''s financial capital and the KSE-100 index shed 73.45 points closed at 18,053.32 points in comparison of 18,126.77 points a day earlier. The index traded in a broad range as it made an intra-day high at 18,200.06 points and an intra-day low at 17,994.60 points. The turnover was recorded as good at 225.43 million in comparison of Monday''s 194.299 million shares.
"Pakistan stocks closed bearish amid higher trades on institutional profit-taking in stocks across the board post major earnings announcements at KSE," said Ahsan Mehnati, an analyst at Arif Habib Corp. He said that higher cement sales data for July-February ''13, recovery in global stocks and commodities supported the index to close above session low amid concerns for rising government debt, security unrest in the city and pending OGDC gas sales agreement with fertiliser companies.
Trading activity was witnessed in 338 active scrips, out of which 129 companies gained and 185 companies shed their share prices while share prices of only 24 scrips remained unchanged. A minus trend was witnessed in Market Capitalisation also, which closed at Rs 4.479 trillion from Rs 4.492 trillion with decrease of Rs 12.5 billion.
Indus Motor Co and Philip Morris Pak remained the highest gainers of the day and their share prices were increased by Rs 11.79 and Rs 10.12 to close at Rs 328.24 and Rs 212.54 respectively. While, Unilever Pak and Indus Dyeing SD remained the great losers as their share prices declined by Rs 249.99 and Rs 23 to close at Rs 10500.01 and Rs 437.5 respectively.
Among the top 10 companies reflecting significant turnover, six companies witnessed rise, while rest four scrips witnessed decline in their share prices. PIAC (A) was the volume leader as it gained 95 paisa to Rs 7.72 on turnover of some 27.1 million shares, Lotte PakPTA also gained 30 paisa to Rs 7.99 on some 23.22 million shares and Jah Sidd Co shed Re 1 to Rs 16.61 on some 17.11 million shares.
PTCLA ended 25 paisa lower at Rs 22.9 on some 13.14 million shares, Telecard Limited decreased by 13 paisa to Rs 6.7 on some 12.19 million shares but Nishat Mills Ltd gained Rs 2.02 to Rs 78.15 on some 10.61 million shares. Engro Corporation witnessed raise of 40 paisa to Rs 123.53 on some 10.53 million turnover, DGK Cement increased by Rs 1.07 to Rs 64.49 on some 10.37 million shares'' trading, while Fuji Cement closed lower by 10 paisa at Rs 8.3 on some 9.28 million shares. And, the last one among top 10 was Lafarge Pakistan which was the achiever of four-paisa and closed at Rs 5.77 on some 6.87 million shares trading.