The KSE-100 index on Wednesday lost another 83.36 points and closed at the level of 9,553.81 points mainly due to continuous selling by local investors. Although the market witnessed support during initial hours and the index touched 9,708.11 points intra-day high level, up 70.94 points, on the back of buying by foreign investors, selling by the local investors dropped the index into negative zone to hit 9,498.66 points intra-day low level, down 138.51 points.
Trading improved slightly and the volume at ready counter increased to 45.982 million shares as compared to 39.686 million shares traded on Tuesday. Market capitalisation declined by Rs 23 billion to Rs 2.678 trillion. Of 368 active scrips, 229 closed in negative and 117 in positive, while the value of 22 scrips remained unchanged.
Amtex was the volume leader with 7.177 million shares and gained Re 0.12 to close at Rs 19.33. Lotte Pakistan PTA lost Re 0.37 to close at Rs 7.52 with 4.848 million shares. Jahangir Siddiqui Co declined by Re 0.37 to close at Rs 10.01 with 2.184 million shares.
NBP and SilkBank decreased by Rs 1.31 and Re 0.18 to close at Rs 61.32 and Rs 2.66 with 1.918 million shares and 1.891 million shares respectively. WorldCall Telecom gained Re 0.08 to close at Rs 2.63 with 1.852 million shares. Hub Power lost Re 0.17 to close at Rs 35.85 with 1.831 million shares. D G Khan Cement declined by Re 0.64 to close at Rs 24.05 with 1.742 million shares. Arif Habib Sec decreased by Rs 1.24 to close at Rs 23.67 with 1.695 million shares. PTCL lost Re 0.30 to close at Rs 18.11 with 1.361 million shares.
Unilever Food and Unilever Pakistan were the highest gainers and increased by Rs 44.01 and Rs 40.35 to close at Rs 939.00 and Rs 3993.07 respectively, while Siemens Pak and Indus Motor Co were the worst losers and declined by Rs 15.07 and Rs 10.22 to close at Rs 1100.00 and Rs 234.95 respectively.
Hasnain Asghar Ali at Aziz Fidahusein Co said that low volume price influx in the index heavyweights did allow the benchmark an increase of almost 70 points. Sell-off in high priced stocks and the main board stocks of the sectors, likely to bear financial, infrastructural and production losses due to ongoing flooding, painted the screen red. Although gains in OGDC, that failed to surrender despite low volumes, disallowed the index to reflect the actual losses, those virtually stayed above triple digit throughout the session. Reflection, however, came towards the end. The sellers did not even wait for buyers on internals. Offers at available rates, regardless of the price levels, led to yet another session of low volume price erosion, he added.