The Karachi share market witnessed mixed trend during the week ended on September 12, 2009 mainly due to local investors' cautious stance ahead of Eid. The KSE-100 index moved both ways and closed at 9,058.77 points with a meagre gain of 56.09 points.
Health buying on Wednesday and Friday supported the index to hit one-year high of 9,151.55 points, but profit taking on pther days restricted the gains, one analyst said. Despite foreign investors' interest, trading activity at the market remained low and the average daily volume at ready counter declined to 210 million shares, or 15.3 percent, as compared to previous week's 248 million shares.
Market capitalisation, however, increased slightly, by Rs 12 billion, to Rs 2.634 trillion. Offshore investors' interest continued and a fresh inflow of $28.6 million was recorded.
On Monday, the market saw profit taking and the index declined by 66.82 points to close at 8,935.86 points level with a volume of 192.042 million shares. On Tuesday, negative trend continued and the index lost 114.30 points to close at 8,821.56 points level with 156.563 million shares trading.
On Wednesday, the market witnessed healthy trading and the index surged by 263.42 points to close at 9,084.98 points level with 252.300 million shares. On Thursday, investors opted for profit taking and the index lost 88.79 points to close at 8,996.19 points level with 257.569 million shares transactions.
On Friday, the market saw positive trend and the index gained 62.58 points to close at 9,058.77 points level with 192.758 million shares.
Bilal Qamar, an analyst at JS Global Capital, said that foreign buying remained at the heart of the local bourse. He said that textile and fertiliser sectors were among top performers with their market capitalisation increasing by 4.4 percent and 2.4 percent respectively. The rally in the textile sector was led by the positive news from the textile policy and a bright future ahead for the industry, whereas the procurement for the Rabi season increased urea demand, he added.
Muniba Saeed at Invest Capital Securities said that investors' confidence at the local bourse remained jittery and they shied away from taking positions above the 9,000 points mark. KSE-100 having reached the level where the market was artificially held up denying exit to participants, selling pressure was witnessed from investors having entered at that time. Foreign investment flows remained the key element in supporting the makret at these levels. The market remained fairly volatile during the week, making a high of 9,151 points on the last trading day, and the KSE-100 traded in a band of 360 points during the week, she added.