Index gains 10.56 points

After witnessing a mixed trend, the KSE-100 index closed at 10,533.57 with a net gain of 10.56 points. The market on Thursday opened on a positive note and the index hit 10,594.57 points intra-day high level, up 71.56 points. However, investors opted for profit taking during mid session that forced the index into negative zone to reach 10,493.75 points down 29.26 points.
Trading activity also shrank as the volumes at ready counter declined to 245.291 million shares as compared to 300.746 million shares traded on Wednesday. The overall market capitalisation slightly increased by Rs 4 billion to stand at Rs 2.980 trillion. Out of the total 417 active scrips, 205 closed in positive, 191 in negative while the value of 21 scrips remained unchanged.
Lotte Pakistan was the volume leader with 30.793 million shares, however lost Re 0.52 to close at Rs 12.80. Silkbank declined by Re 0.19 to close at Rs 3.89 with 29.652 million shares. TRG Pakistan gained Re 0.38 to close at Rs 4.50 with 21.298 million shares. Azgard Nine surged by Re 1.00 to close at Rs 13.06 with 15.263 million shares.
PTCL increased by Re 0.29 to close at Rs 21.76 with 10.425 million shares. Pace Pak closed at Rs 5.80, up Re 0.14 with 10.026 million shares. Jahangir Siddiqui Co surged by Rs 1.04 to close at Rs 22.01 with 9.111 million shares. Dewan Salman lost Re 0.09 to close at Rs 2.49 with 9.053 million shares.
NBP increased by Re 0.47 to close at Rs 73.71 with 8.323 million shares. Arif Habib Sec gained Re 0.46 to close at Rs 47.96 with 7.671 million shares. Rafhan Maize and Nestle Pak were the top gainers with Rs 49.00 and Rs 31.01 to close at Rs 1379.00 and Rs 1369.31, respectively while Unilever Pakistan and Unilever Food were the worst losers with Rs 142.34 and Rs 40.00 to close at Rs 3350.42 and Rs 1100.00 respectively.
Hasnain Asghar Ali at Aziz Fidahusein Co said that the hype of foreign participants allowed the index yet another intra-day high of recent time, low average of shares accumulated bought by offshore participants, however disallowed renewed buying in the expensive stocks. Since the expensive stocks have been witnessing offloading from the local corridors, even the local punters reduced their holdings in them.