Index loses 80.56 points

Bearish activity continued on second consecutive day at Karachi stock market on Wednesday and KSE-100 index lost 80.56 points due to profit taking by local as well as foreign investors. The benchmark KSE-100 closed at 12,577.61 points from 12,658.16 points. The index hit 12,733.92 points intra-day high and 12,563.33 points intra-day low level.
Trading decreased and the volume at ready counter declined to 188 million shares as compared to 270.802 million shares traded on Tuesday. However, trading on futures counter posted increase at 72.88 million shares against 18.95 million shares previously. Market capitalisation decreased by Rs 20.59 billion to Rs 3.401 trillion from Rs 3.422 trillion.
Trading took place in 397 scrips, out of which 140 scrips closed in the positive, 235 in the negative position, and the values of 22 shares remained unchanged. Lotte Pakistan PTA was the volume leader with 46.771 million shares and gained Re 0.55 to close at Rs 16.19. Fauji Fertiliser Bin Qasim decreased by Re 0.99 to close at Rs 42.14 with trading volume of 15.757 million shares. PTCLA gained Re 0.02 to close at Rs 20.03 with 12.553 million shares. Nishat Mills increased by Rs 2.24 to close at Rs 71.23 with trading of 12.45 million shares. With 7.31 million shares trading, D G Khan Cement lost Re 0.40 to close at Rs 30.20.
Share price of Pace Pak surged by Re. 0.34 to close at Rs 3.32 with 5.8 million shares. Nishat Chun Power closed at Rs 16.82 with no change and 6.07 million shares were traded. Jahangir Siddiqui Co deceased by Re 0.43 to close at Rs 11.60 with 4.22 million shares. Azgard Nine lost Re 0.21 to close at Rs 11.17 with 3.83 million shares trading. With volume of 3.68 million shares trading, Pak Oilfields closed at Rs 337.74 up by Rs 3.54.
Unilever Pakistan and Nestle Pakistan were the highest gainers and gain Rs 72.88 and Rs 18.96 to close at Rs 4,577.17 and Rs 2825.66 respectively, while Rafhan Maize and Wyeth Pakistan were the worst losers and lost Rs 72.40 and Rs 30.75 to close at Rs 2182.60 and Rs 984.25 respectively. Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Investments said that investors booked profits in overbought market and sold share for profit taking.
In addition, rising circular debt in Pakistan energy sector, and uncertainty over next SBP monetary policy announcement played a catalyst role in negative close at KSE despite foreign interest in blue chip scrips and institutional interest in fertiliser sector scrips on expectation of record earning announcements, he said.