Index down 28.36 points

Mixed trend was observed on the Karachi Stock Exchange on Tuesday and the KSE-100 index closed at 10,641.52 points with a loss of 28.36 points. The market opened on a positive note and the index hit 10,730.10 points intra-day high, up 60.22 points. However, the investors preferred to offload their holdings due to security concerns.
Trading shrank and the volume at ready counter declined to 137.058 million shares as compared to 166.922 million shares traded on Monday. Market capitalisation also declined by Rs 8 billion to Rs 3.016 trillion. Of 414 active scrips, 208 closed in negative and 176 in positive, while the value of 30 scrips remained unchanged.
Lotte Pakistan was volume leader with 11.408 million shares. However, it lost Re 0.27 to close at Rs 12.13. TRG Pakistan declined by Re 0.07 to close at Rs 5.72 with 10.048 million shares. WorldCall Telecom decreased by Re 0.12 to close at Rs 4.98 with 7.496 million shares.
NBP, SilkBank and NIB Bank declined by Re 0.02, Re 0.08 and Re 0.11 to close at Rs 77.79, Rs 4.09 and Rs 4.54 with 7.061 million shares, 6.247 million shares and 3.485 million shares respectively. Azgard Nine gained Re 0.06 to close at Rs 15.63 with 6.344 million shares.
DG Khan Cement lost Re 0.09 to close at Rs 31.25 with 5.420 million shares, while Maple Leaf Cement gained Re 0.03 to close at Rs 4.70 with 3.003 million shares. PTCL declined by Re 0.09 to close at Rs 21.94 with 3.689 million shares.
Unilever Pakistan and Rafhan Maize were the highest gainers and increased by Rs 174.99 and Rs 20.30 to close at Rs 3675.00 and Rs 1490.30 respectively, while Dreamworld and Fazal Textile were the worst losers and declined by Rs 30.00 and Rs 18.32 to close at Rs 570.00 and Rs 348.17 respectively.
Hasnain Asghar Ali at Aziz Fidahusein Co said that an excited opening, initiated by renewed buying in POL backed by rumours of offshore activity set the dice. While banking stocks carrying whispers of foreign buying supported the index as the leading sector stocks were expected to report sustainability in quarterly announcements. The run-up soon lost the steam due to absence of follow-up support and cured up sellers on strength. The initiators rightly thought to save energy for last hour in order to have an impact of the efforts made to build the sentiment.
He said that the locals stayed on hold until the unveiling of major announcements expected from running week, while snap rallies in low priced stocks kept the trading opportunities alive. Prolonged stagnation, however, forced the index to enter the red zone mainly due to offloading by the day traders. Dips, however, invited cautious accumulation by the corporate participants.