Selling pressure both from individuals and institutions led to a small erosion at Karachi Stock Exchange on Tuesday where activity was on the lower side because of lack of interest from larger brokerage houses.
The KSE-100 index fell 9.07 points, or 0.17 percent, to 5390.65 as compared with 5399.72 of Monday. The volume rose 267 million shares as against 262 million shares.
Humbal Haroon Katia, equity analyst from Akbarally Cassim, said that the market stayed during the session, with volumes reducing to the range of 250-300 million. Investors patiently accumulated at their desired levels.
Major activity was witnessed in Lucky Cement as it is expected that the company's profitability would increase due to the expansion program. Fauji Fertiliser was amongst major gainers as the market expects stock dividend.
He said that badla increased drastically by 2.28 billion rupees. There was badla increase all across the board, led by PTCL with 30 percent and D.G. Khan Cement by 24 percent.
The badla increased by 10 percent, which on a bearish market seems quite peculiar.
Hasnain Asghar from Aziz Fidahusein said that technically the index would continue to find support around 5391-5397 while overhead resistance stays around 5431-5437. The provisionally listed Pakistan Petroleum can be looked for trading around Rs 110-107 as the movement depicts an upside of Rs 130-133, while mutual funds and leading stocks of fertiliser, telecommunication, banking and oil and gas stocks can be looked for both trading and placements as the upcoming events will continue to invite buyers.
Cyra Patricia from Live Securities said that the index moved in both positive and negative boundaries. Despite buying in the blue chips, punters decided to offload their sideboard items sending the index on a downward slope. Sentiments of small institutional investors were hurt as the index began to face downward correction.
Profit taking was witnessed more towards session's end. At present, the market appears to have changed its direction as investors have adopted the strategy to square their positions towards the end of the day. OGDC, NBP, D G Khan Cement and Fauji Cement landed in the minus column. Hubco remained at the bottom through the session attributed by the news of delaying repair works in Unit 4.
Lucky Cement rose 85 paisa to Rs 42.50 on business of 33 million shares; PTCL rose 35 paisa to Rs 42.90 on trading of 32 million shares; OGDC fell 50 paisa to Rs 66.95 on a volume of 24 million shares; Bank of Punjab gained 20 paisa to Rs 57.10 as around 19 million shares changed hands; and Maple Leaf rose five paisa to Rs 40.40 on deals of 16 million shares.