The Karachi share market on Wednesday witnessed a mixed trend with the benchmark KSE-100 index oscillating between 16,300.06 points intra-day high and 16,199.06 points intra-day low levels, and finally closed at the level of 16,233.19 points, down 18.6 points.
Trading activities also remained low as the volumes at ready counter declined to 205.299 million shares as compared to 330.346 million shares traded on Tuesday. Total market capitalisation reduced by one billion rupees to stand at Rs 4.061 trillion. Of the total 370 active stocks, 179 closed in positive and 163 in negative while the value of 28 stocks remained unchanged. KESC was the volume leader with 36.529 million shares and increased by Re 0.51 to close at Rs 6.16.
In the cement sector, Fauji Cement lost Re 0.07 to close at Rs 6.7 with 23.695 million shares, while Maple Leaf Cement gained Re 0.3 to close at Rs 14.25 with 9.255 million shares. Jahangir Siddiqui Co inched up by Re 0.23 to close at Rs 16.1 with 12.298 million shares. Azgard Nine closed at Rs 8.28, up Re 0.02 with 9.093 million shares.
Byco Petroleum increased by Re 0.38 to close at Rs 9.52 with 7.669 million shares. WorldCall Telecom gained Re 0.13 to close at Rs 2.83 with 7.184 million shares. JS Bank lost Re 0.24 to close at Rs 5.7 with 4.902 million shares. Quice Food decreased by Re 0.39 to close at Rs 10.42 with 4.628 million shares. Kohinoor Industries inched up by Re 0.35 to close at Rs 3.56 with 4.187 million shares.
Island Textile and Bhanero Textile were the top gainers increasing by Rs 34.36 and Rs 11.3 to close at Rs 721.7 and Rs 237.3 respectively, while Bata (Pak) Limited and Indus Dyeing were the top losers declining by Rs 27.5 and Rs 11.07 to close at Rs 1325.5 and Rs 538.91 respectively. Samar Iqbal at Topline Securities said the profit taking was seen at local stock market in the absence of any major news on political and economical front. In line with last few sessions investors' interest remained towards small and mid cap cement stocks.