The Karachi share market witnessed mixed trend during last week ended on March 1, 2008 and the KSE-100 index touched new high level of 15,078.19 points but could not sustain that level due to profit taking later and finally settled at 14,934.30 points level, down by 46.36 points.
The KSE-30 index also declined by 19.80 points, to close at 18,367.29 points level. Market capitalisation increased by Rs 10 billion to Rs 4.618 trillion. Average daily trading volume of ready market declined by 11 percent to 320 million shares. "However, average trading volumes this week (+29 percent year-to-date) were impressive compared to the average daily year-to-date volume of 248 million shares, indicating rising investor confidence in Pakistan equities", Ayub Ansari, an analyst at Invest Capital & Securities said.
The share market started on a positive note on Monday and the KSE-100 index breached through the 15,000 points psychological level, but failed to sustain the gain due to profit taking and the index closed at 14,947.54 points, down by 33.12 points.
On Tuesday, the index closed at its highest level of 15,056.12 points with a net gain of 108.58 points on the back of strong interest of retail and foreign investors due to positive developments on the political front.
The KSE-100 index hit 15,155.01 points intra-day high level on Wednesday however could not sustained that level and finally closed at 15,019.69 points, down by 36.43 points.
On Thursday, the index closed at its new high level of 15,078.19, with a net gain of 58.50 points on the back of strong interest of retail and foreign investors.
The market witnessed profit taking by the market participants on Friday, and the KSE-100 index declined by 143.89 points to close at 14,934.30 points level.
Major trading volume growth during the week was witnessed in the Jute (+473 percent), Cable & Electric (+269 percent) and Fertiliser (+262 percent) sectors while the Woolen (-90 percent), Synthetic & Rayon (-58 percent) and Technology & Communication (-55 percent) sectors recorded the steepest declines in average trading volumes respectively.
Sectors that gain the most on weekly basis were Close-end Mutual Funds by 4.6 percent, Fertiliser by 3.8 percent and Insurance by 2.9 percent, while the sectors that lost the most were Woollen by -8.4 percent, Autos by -4.8 percent and Technology & Communication by -4.4 percent. Week-on-week movement in the remaining blue chip sectors, namely OMCs, Commercial Banks, E&P and Cement, was observed at 2.0 percent, 1.5 percent, 0.4 percent and -1.2 percent respectively.
Farhan Mehmood, an analyst at JS Global Capital, said that owing to political calmness in the country, the KSE-100 index remained stable during the outgoing week.
The market reached its all-time high level, but finally closed in negative mainly due to profit taking on the last trading session. The profit taking was witnessed mainly due to below than expected corporate results of Bank of Punjab and close to ceiling CFS investment position. Since elections, though, the benchmark KSE-100 index has gained 4 percent (580 points) mainly due to the significant re-entry of both local and foreign investors in the market. During this period, total net foreign inflows increased to $207 million.