Bearish spell continues

Bears roared loudly on the floor of Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) Thursday and the benchmark 100-index lost another 180 points to close at 25,506 points against 25,686 points Wednesday. The trading side, however, closed on a positive note at 196.928 million shares against previous 185.762 million shares.
During the intraday trading, the 100-index touched 25,718 highest and 25,443 lowest levels. The market capitalisation witnessed decline and settled at Rs 6.219 trillion against Rs 6.271 trillion. Commenting on the market performance, analysts said the market continued to slide amid prevailing weak sentiment. HUBCO and NCL kept on sliding after their lower than expected results came a few days back.
They added HUBCO lost 4 percent in share value while NCL closed at 5 percent lower limit. Profit-taking was also witnessed in the index heavyweights OGDC which lost Rs 2 and PSO, which closed 1.4 percent down. They said that small cap stocks witnessed healthy volumes as 28mn shares were traded in BOP (R) followed by TRG with 26mn shares. Of active 366 companies, only 114 closed in green while 229 in the negative, they added.
Overall, 366 companies were marked active on the readyboard. Some 114 scrips registered gains while 229 lost their worth. Rates of 23 cos remained unchanged. Two top gainers for the day were Unilever Foods, which shot up by Rs 350 to Rs 9350 and Pak Tobacco, which climbed by Rs 18.94 to Rs 640. The top losers were Nestle Pak, which shed Rs 487.25 to Rs 9257.75 and Rafhan Maize, which lost Rs 214.92 to Rs 7275.08. Of the Top 10 volume leaders, Bank of Punjab (R) led the tally with 28m shares, but registered a fall of 20 paisa to close at Rs 1.21; TRG Pakistan gained 86 paisa on some 26m shares; and Lafarge Pak rose by 25 paisa to close at Rs 10.66 on 9m shares.
Jahangir Siddiqui Company fell by five paisa to settle at Rs 12.08 on 9m shares; Hub Power Company shed Re1.60 to Rs 54.30 on 7m shares; and Engro Corporation bagged Rs 1.53 to close at Rs 173.43 on 6m shares. DGK Cement lost 99 paisa to close at Rs 85.91 on 6m shares; Kot Addu Power gained 85 paisa to close at Rs 56.85 on 6m shares; Pak Elektron increased by 71 paisa to Rs 19.81 on 6m shares and Bank of Punjab lost two paisa to close at Rs 10.87 on 5m shares.