Index down 10.21 points

After moving both sides, the KSE-100 index on Wednesday finally closed at 13,293.12 points, down 10.21 points due to profit taking in late hours. The market opened on a strong positive note and the index hit 13,399.39 points intra-day high level. However, investors opted for profit taking in late hours and the index dropped into negative zone at 13,265.30 points intra-day low level.
Trading activities however improved as the volumes at ready counter increased to 266.068 million shares as compared to 247.813 million shares traded on Tuesday. Total market capitalisation declined by Rs 18 billion to stand at Rs 3.410 trillion. Of the total 387 active stocks, 159 closed in positive and 137 in negative while the value of 91 stocks remained unchanged.
Jahangir Siddiqui Co was the volume leader with 30.206 million shares and gained Re 0.62 to close at Rs 18.58. TRG Pakistan inched up by Re 0.45 to close at Rs 4.08 with 27.394 million shares. In the banking sector, JS Bank, NIB Bank and BoP increased by Re 0.16, Re 0.28 and Re 0.22 to close at Rs 6.94, Rs 2.69 and Rs 8.56 with 13.959 million shares, 10.865 million shares and 7.056 million shares respectively while Bankislami declined by Re 0.57 to close at Rs 6.07 with 9.413 million shares.
In the cement sector, Lafarge Pakistan and Dewan Cement lost Re 0.04 and Re 0.14 to close at Rs 3.84 and Rs 4.40 with 9.395 million shares and 7.36 million shares respectively, while DG Khan Cement gained Re 0.18 to close at Rs 31.99 with 8.554 million shares. WorldCall Telecom inched up by Re 0.06 to close at Rs 2.55 with 9.366 million shares.
Unilever Food and Wyeth Pak were the highest gainers increasing by Rs 50.00 and Rs 12.24 to close at Rs 1801.00 and Rs 718.20 respectively, while Rafhan Maize and Unilever Pak were the worst losers declining by Rs 138.72 and Rs 116.78 to close at Rs 2635.85 and Rs 5701.00 respectively.
Hasnain Asghar Ali, head of equity sales at Invisor Securities said the low volume highs during initial trade invited off-loading in the front line stocks, thus disallowing the low volume strength to gain momentum. Although volumetric activity in low priced stocks and in the holding companies on rising values of their strategic holdings did pour-in decent turnover, absence of aggressive support to counter fresh float in front liners and prolonged intra-day stagnation forced the benchmark in red zone, wherein KSE-30 was down by 110 points on close, thus depicting the trend of the entire main board.
He said that the uncertainty on issuance of official documentation for enforcement of committed infrastructural changes on CGT and amnesty issue, along nervousness due to economic and financial situation and on the high profile judicial decisions kept the local equity market in a fix, thus signalling caution.