Selective buying in some main board stocks on Monday supported the KSE-100 index to reach 10,297.68 points level with a meagre gain of 1.64 points with extremely low volumes. "The lack of leverage support remained the major reason behind the very low trading activity at the local bourse, however investors' interest in some main board stocks supported the index to close in positive," analysts said.
The share market opened on a positive note and the index hit 10,351.81 points intra-day high level, up 54.13 points on the back of continuous foreign investors' interest. However, after mid session, the local investors opted for profit taking and the index dropped into negative zone at the level of 10,284.02 points, down 13.66 points. Trading activity remained extremely low as the volumes at ready counter declined to 40.209 million shares as compared to already low volumes of 67.388 million shares recorded on Friday.
The overall market capitalisation slightly declined by Rs 1 billion to stand Rs 2.888 trillion. Out of the total 389 active scrips, 242 closed in negative, 125 in positive while the value of 22 scrips remained unchanged. Jahangir Siddiqui Co was the volume leader with 4.703 million shares, however it lost Re 0.16 to close at Rs 14.91. Byco Petroleum gained Re 0.18 to close at Rs 12.65 with 3.023 million shares. TRG Pakistan declined by Re 0.19 to close at Rs 4.04 with 2.843 million shares. Nishat Mills increased by Re 0.13 to close at Rs 50.49 with 2.214 million shares.
The E&P giant, OGDC surged by Rs 1.03 to close at Rs 151.92 with 1.759 million shares. Lotte Pakistan PTA lost Re 0.12 to close at Rs 8.27 with 1.694 million shares. Fauji Fertiliser Bin Qasim declined by Re 0.09 to close at Rs 29.56 with 1.636 million shares.
MCB Bank increased by Rs 2.15 to close at Rs 212.09 with 1.116 million shares. DG Khan Cement declined by Re 0.42 to close at Rs 27.22 with 1.101 million shares. Azgard Nine lost Re 0.29 to close at Rs 12.64 with 0.925 million shares.
Unilever Food and Fazal Textile were the top gainers with Rs 44.40 and Rs 13.45 to close at 1090.00 and Rs 350.00, respectively while Unilever Pakistan and Wyeth Pak were the worst losers with Rs 56.00 and Rs 54.40 to close at Rs 3952.00 and Rs 1044.00, respectively.
Muhammad Imran, Head of Research at Arif Habib Limited said lack of leverage product remained the main reason behind the drastic decline of daily trading activities at the local bourse. The introduction of new leverage product is still in process as the board of directors of all three stock exchanges and National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited (NCCPL) are reviewing the final concept paper on Margin Trading and would send back to SEECP by the end of this month.On the other hand, the investors are also waiting the announcement of Monetary Policy by the central bank scheduled for July 30, 2010, he added.