KARACHI – The KSE-100 witnessed a lackluster trading session as investors remained largely sluggish due to the absence of encouraging market factors. Hence, the KSE-100 closed down 37 points at 11,869 with volumes falling by 11 percent from Friday to 60 million shares.
The upcoming result season is expected to revive investor interest and increase market participation. Second tier stocks dominated the volume chart today with NICL, DGKC, PACE and JSCL making up 24 percent of the total market volume. The KSE 100 index closed at 11,868.77 with a loss of 37.10 points, while total volume stood at 35,911,387 along with the total value of 1,752,518,559. KSE-30 index lost 34.02 points to close at 11,579.94, and All Share index closed at 8,491.13 after losing 25.57 points.
A total of 108 scrips advanced, 166 declined and 88 remain unchanged out of a total of 362 scrips traded. KSE market capitalisation stood at Rs. 3,163.18 billion, that is $37.31 billion, while KSE Future Volume was 2.89 million shares. KSE Future Value was Rs 339.61 million and KSE Future Spread stood at 8.23 percent. The benchmark continued to struggle to breach 12k level at time index came close to the 12,000 mark, but stiff resistance and selling pressure kept the bull under control. Volume continued to remain lackluster and illustrated the lack of investor confidence and willingness to invest. Top ten stocks were largely dominated by low cap stocks, while top tier stocks were noticeably absent.
It is believed that the range bound behavior of the index may change, going forward with the commencement of quarterly result season, said Bilal Asif at HMFS. The government has initiated the budget making process; hence investors are likely to revise their strategy in line with budgetary expectations. Going forward, strong results along with budgetary expectation would drive the market, he added. Top gainers in today’s session were Indus Dyeing Manufacturing, Pakistan Refinery Ltd., Dawood Hercules Chemicals Ltd, Pakistan Telephone Cables Ltd, PICIC Growth Fund, Allied Bank Limited, and Hub Power Company Limited. While top losers include Pace (Pak) Ltd, Pakistan International Airlines, Pak Elektron Ltd, Azgard Nine Ltd, Pak Suzuki Motor Co Ltd, and Bank Of Punjab Limited.
