Index loses 2.36 points

After witnessing a mixed trend on Thursday, the KSE-100 index closed at 12,125.79 points, 2.36 points lower than the previous day's closing of 12,128.15 points. Although the market opened on a strong positive note and the index hit 12,210.85 points intra-day high level on the back of fresh buying by local investors.
However, the foreign investors opted for profit taking on available margins that forced the index into negative at 12,089.04 points intra-day low level. The foreigners emerged net sellers of shares worth $7.25 million. Trading volumes slightly improved to 103.069 million shares as compared to 100.411 million shares traded on Wednesday.
The overall market capitalisation declined by Rs 4 billion to stand at Rs 3.259 trillion. Out of the total 369 active scrips, 149 closed in negative and 132 in positive while the value of 88 stocks remained unchanged. Lotte Pakistan PTA was the volume leader with 29.761 million shares and gained Re 0.24 to close at Rs 16.07.
Fauji Fertiliser Bin Qasim lost Re 0.44 to close at Rs 43.28 with 6.932 million shares. In other fertiliser sector stocks, Engro Corporation declined by Rs 2.35 to close at Rs 234.84 with 3.775 million shares while Fauji Fertiliser Co (FFC) increased by Re 0.78 to close at Rs 133.13 with 3.561 million shares. PIAC (A) inched up by Re 0.22 to close at Rs 2.83 with 5.248 million shares.
POL surged by Rs 1.62 to close at Rs 322.29 with 4.628 million shares. Nishat (Chunian) inched up by Re 0.28 to close at Rs 27.60 with 3.704 million shares. NBP declined by Re 0.68 to close at Rs 78.87 with 3.603 million shares. Nishat Mills lost Re 0.06 to close at Rs 64.52 with 2.605 million shares. Jahangir Siddiqui Co decreased by Re 0.09 to close at Rs 9.32 with 2.387 million shares.
Unilever Pak and Nestle Pakistan were the highest gainers increasing by Rs 66.99 and Rs 24.54 to close at Rs 4793.16 and Rs 3424.64 respectively while Bata Pak and Service Industries were the worst losers declining by Rs 20.85 and Rs 10.25 to close at Rs 531.33 and Rs 194.94 respectively.
Hasnain Asghar Ali at Aziz Fidahusein Co said that the tough conditions set for release of funds, by both US and IMF forced the local bourse to under go a technical correction and the front line stocks from banking and fertiliser sectors faced renewed off-loading by local participants, both from corporate and retail circuits. However presence of renewed buyers in growth and dividend yielding stocks, did allow a smooth change of hands without denting the benchmark on a large scale, while low priced stocks kept the volumes ticking. Lotte Pakistan PTA contributed almost 30 percent to the total turnover.