Index loses 51.89 points

The KSE-100 index on Tuesday lost 51.89 points to close at 10,842.26 points due to investors'' cautious stance over the prevailing law and order situation in the city. The market opened on a negative note and the index hit 10,768.02 points intra-day low level.
However, late buying in some select stocks by institutions and foreign investors supported the index to minimise early losses. The offshore investors emerged net buyers of shares and a fresh inflow of $2.3 million was witnessed on the net basis at the equity market.
The market witnessed extremely low trading in the shortened trading session due to prevailing law and order situation in the city and the volume at ready counter declined to 22.397 million shares as compared to 35.727 million shares traded on Monday.
Market capitalisation declined by Rs 11 billion to Rs 2.890 trillion. Of 241 active stocks, 86 closed in positive and 82 in negative, while the values of 73 scrips remained unchanged. NBP was the volume leader with 4.048 million shares. However, it lost Re 0.53 to close at Rs 39.95. BoP and SilkBank decreased by Re 0.19 and Re 0.05 to close at Rs 5.24 and Rs 2.10 with 0.711 million shares and 0.509 million shares respectively.
PTCL gained Re 0.42 to close at Rs 11.66 with 1.996 million shares. Nimir Ind. Chemicals inched up by Re 0.26 to close at Rs 3.16 with 1.987 million shares. Fauji Fertiliser Co (FFC), Engro Corp and Fauji Fertiliser Bin Qasim surged by Rs 3.89, Rs 3.53 and Re 0.18 to close at Rs 159.65, Rs 117.83 and Rs 47.01 with 1.986 million shares, 1.446 million shares and 1.031 million shares respectively.
POL increased by Rs 8.17 to close at Rs 350.25 with 1.002 million shares. Nishat Chunian Power gained Re 0.93 to close at Rs 14.74 with 0.496 million shares. Nestle Pakistan and POL were highest gainers, increasing by Rs 18.14 and Rs 8.17 to close at Rs 3610.30 and Rs 350.25 respectively, while Unilever Pak and Island Textile were worst losers declining by Rs 46.04 and Rs 10.00 to close at Rs 5441.60 and Rs 213.25 respectively.
Mohammad Rizwan at Topline Securities said in spite of strike call, quality defensive stocks saw buying from leading institutions. Volume remained low at 22 million shares due to strike as KSE management reduced trading time by 90 minutes. Index heavyweight OGDC, PPL and MCB fell, bringing Index down 0.4 percent. However, POL and FFC gained as investors preferred high dividend paying stocks at times of uncertainty.