Mixed trend on KSE

Karachi share market depicted mixed trend during the week ended on February 13, 2010 and the KSE-100 index closed at 9,805.87 points with a gain of 36.14 points. The investors took cautious stance and the index traded in a tight band of 158 points, hitting 9,882 points high and 9,724 points low.
Trading remained low and the average daily volume at ready counter declined by 11 percent on weekly basis to 172.198 million shares.
Market capitalisation, however, increased by Rs 10 billion to Rs 2.820 trillion. A fresh net inflow of $3.62 million in foreign portfolio was recorded. On Monday, the market opened on a negative note, but later witnessed healthy recovery and the index closed at 9,809.98 points with a gain of 40.25 points with volume of 182.215 million shares.
On Tuesday, the investors opted for profit taking and the index lost 23.52 points to close at 9,786.46 points, with 145.533 million shares. On Wednesday, bearish trend continued and the index lost 53.10 points to close at 9,733.36 points level, with 154.615 million shares as volume.
On Thursday, investors'' interest was witnessed at low levels mainly in oil sector stocks and the index recovered 69.44 points to close at 9,802.80 points level with 156.840 million shares. On Friday, the index gained 3.07 points to close the week at 9,805.87 points level with 221.787 million shares.
Nauman Khan at Invest Capital & Securities said that the week depicted cautious activity at the bourse as forces of hope and despair created confusion in the minds of investors.
The week opened on a cautious note on the back of ill-fated events of Karachi''s twin blasts. Market participants, however, recovered quickly from the shock of the mishap and took fresh positions in anticipation of better results from the Attock Group of companies (ACPL, APL, ATRL, NRL and POL). This created positive ripples across the bourse, which later was roped in by higher inflation numbers. But the news regarding the plea-bargain of BoP accused brought the cheers back.
In a nutshell, the market depicted mixed trend as positive and negative triggers seesawed. Among individual scrips, activity was skewed towards third-tier scrips, with major turnover resting with WTL, LPCL, LOTPTA and KESC, cumulatively contributing 45 percent to the total turnover.
Rabia Tariq at JS Global Capital said that the result season was in full swing with POL, APL and NRL out with their results while PSO, ICI, NML, HBL and Kapco being few among those in line for next week. Though APL, NRL and POL posted healthy earnings, they failed to trigger a rally being broadly in line with expectations. Rumours also circulated with regard to capital gain tax on brokers, which kept the market further subdued.
Moreover, higher than expected CPI acted as a dampener, while trade deficit and remittances numbers brought no surprises to the market and hence failed to trigger a rally. Overall, the market remained lacklustre, closing at 9,806 level, up 0.4 percent on weekly basis.