The Karachi share market ended the week in red Friday which marked the first day of the holy month of Ramazan amid thin trade. With trading turnover plunging to 207 million shares from Thursday's 450 million, the KSE-100 index lost 148 points to close at 34,526.70. The value of the stocks traded nose-dived by 59 percent or Rs 7.9 billion to Rs 5.54 billion from Rs 13.44 billion of last trading session.
Total 350 scrips changed hands of which 107 landed in green, 227 in red and 16 stayed unchanged. With market capitalisation sliding to Rs 7.453 trillion, foreign investment witnessed net buying of $25,866. Dewan Cement led the day's volume with 26.6 million shares. The cement producers opened the day at Rs 12.86 per shares and closed at Rs 13.25.
Other best performing stocks were: K-Electric 23.6 million, Byco Petroleum 20 million, Power Cement 13.9 million, Dewan Salman 7.4 million, Jahangir Siddiqui Company 6.4 million, TRG Pakistan 5.4 million, Pak Elektron 5.3 million, TPL Trakker 5.1 million and Hum Network 5.1 million shares. Futures trade declined to 12.68 million contracts compared to 29.91 million of previous day. "Stocks closed lower amid thin activity in the short Ramazan session on institutional profit-taking in select bluechips across the board," said Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp.
The analyst cited investors' concern for high taxation on bluechips levied in the federal budget, weak global crude prices and rising political noise and its impact on sentiment inviting late session pressure as day's catalyst. Attributing bearish trend to the pressure in E&P sector, Fahad M Ali of JS Global said the benchmark index remained range-bound. "Volume at the bourse remained dull as it was the first day of the holy month of Ramazan when all commercial banks remained closed for public dealing as well," he added. The market is expected to remain dull and range-bound in the coming week.
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