The Karachi stock market witnessed mixed trend on Monday, the first working day after the announcement of federal budget for 2011-12, and after moving to both sides, the KSE-100 index closed at 12,211.65 points, down 25.01 points. After opening in negative the index hit 12,141.84 points intra-day low level. However, institutional support in mid-session supported the index to recover its intra-day losses to hit 12,320.47 points intra-day high level.
The index once again dropped into negative in late hours and closed with modest losses. Trading, however, improved and the volume at ready counter increased to 95.854 million shares as compared to 65.315 million shares traded on last trading session.
Market capitalisation declined by Rs 8 billion to Rs 3.243 trillion. Of 348 active scrips, 174 closed in negative and 77 in positive, while values of 97 stocks remained unchanged. Fauji Cement (R) was the volume leader with 15.466 million shares. However, it lost Re 0.06 to close at Rs 0.07. D G Khan Cement and Maple Leaf Cement gained Re 0.15 and Re 0.20 to close at Rs 24.82 and Rs 2.73 with 13.560 million shares and 3.861 million shares respectively. Lucky Cement, Fauji Cement and Lafarge Pakistan declined by Re 0.45, Re 0.13 and Re 0.10 to close at Rs 74.30, Rs 4.77 and Rs 3.10 with 4.450 million shares, 2.919 million shares and 2.488 million shares respectively.
Fatima Fertiliser Co inched up by Re 0.04 to close at Rs 13.59 with 5.990 million shares. Lotte Pakistan PTA lost Re 0.37 to close at Rs 14.60 with 5.369 million shares. POL surged by Rs 5.27 to close at Rs 342.36 with 3.914 million shares. Jahangir Siddiqui Co lost Re 0.40 to close at Rs 7.28 with 2.764 million shares.
Unilever Pak and Rafhan Maize were the highest gainers increasing by Rs 46.01 and Rs 31.91 to close at Rs 5121.55 and Rs 2697.00 respectively, while PSO and Al-Ghazi Tractors were the worst losers declining by Rs 4.81 and Rs 4.41 to close at Rs 285.36 and Rs 231.39 respectively.
Hasnain Asghar Ali at Aziz Fidahusein Co said that after initial negativity, amid low volumes due to absence of much expected change in implementation mechanism of capital gain tax (CGT), the bulls made a strong comeback due to windfall concession to the local cement manufacturers by the federal government (status of provincial government yet to be unveiled), allowing the frontline stocks of the sector to stage an impressive recovery, backed by decent volumes. The impact was certainly loud enough to pull the entire board from deep negative to positive zone. uly following the trend were the frontline banking stocks, and the sector thoroughly managed to avert the likely threat of increase in corporate tax and not to forget the discovery-led speculative run-up in POL. Thus, beside fuelling traded value, the activity offered widespread trading opportunities to those who dared.
Although strength failed to invite follow-up support, availability of buyers on dips did restrict the panic sell, which otherwise would have led to a manor sell-off. Optimism linked to implementation of proposals regarding CGT mechanism was still sending positive signals, and is likely to stay in place till the approval of federal budget. So, the resident participants are likely to stay cautious for the time. Day-end offloading wiping off the entire gains attained during the session suggests the same.
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