Mixed trend on stock market

After witnessing mixed trend the KSE-100 index managed to close in positive at 9,838.12 points with a gain of 69.49 points during the week ended on October 17, 2009.
"Despite growing security concerns and uncertainty on the political front regarding Kerry-Lugar Bill and NRO placement in front of the NA , the index stayed firm in its rising waves while touching its highest level since August 23, 2008 at 9,846 points on Thursday", an analyst said.
However, on the final trading session, the index succumbed to selling pressure and closed at 9,838.12 points as foreign institutions were net sellers by $2.80 million.
Local investors, however, remained on the sidelines during the week, which affected trading and the average daily volume at ready counter declined to 190 million shares.
Market capitalisation, however increased by Rs 13 billion to Rs 2.848 trillion.
The interest of offshore investors continued with a fresh inflow of $2.7 million of foreign portfolio investment. The foreigners bought shares worth $25.7 million and sold share valuing $23 million. Moreover, individuals too were net buyers of $7.2 million. Mutual funds and companies on the other hand remained on the selling side, as they offloaded shares worth $0.9 million and $9 million respectively.
On Monday, the market depicted negative trend and the index lost 126.07 points to close at 9,642.56 points with a volume of 156.716 million shares. On Tuesday, the situation slightly improved and the index recovered 43.84 points to close at 9,686.40 points with trading of 118.138 million shares.
On Wednesday, the market witnessed buying rally and the index surged by 118.21 points to close at 9,804.61 points with 220.564 million shares.
On Thursday, the index gained 41.13 points to close at 9,845.74 points with 214.452 million shares. On Friday, the investors opted for profit taking and the index lost 7.62 points to close at 9,838.12 points with 241.957 million shares.
Mustafa Bilwani at JS Global Capital said that the index remained range-bound as investors opted for a cautious stance on account of terror strikes and incongruity over the Kerry Lugar Bill. The investors' interest mainly in energy and fertiliser sectors supported the index to close in positive with an increase of 0.7 percent.
The fertiliser and E&P sectors were among major performers, posting returns of 4.6 percent and 1.2 percent, respectively. E&P and fertiliser sectors accounted for 9 percent and 7 percent of the total volumes in the outgoing week. Nauman Khan at Invest Capital Securities said that despite growing security concerns, along with uncertainty on the political arena regarding Kerry-Lugar Bill and NRO placement brfore the NA, KSE index stayed firm in its rising waves while touching its highest level since August 23, 2008 at 9,846 points on Thursday. However, on the final trading session of the week, the index succumbed to selling pressure to close at 9,819 points as foreign institutions were net sellers by $2.80 million on Friday.