Psychological level breached

Bull-run continued on the Karachi share market on Friday on the back of aggressive buying by both local and foreign investors and the benchmark KSE-100 index breached 12,600 psychological level to hit 12,611.52 points intra-day high level. Profit taking in the late hours before weekend, however minimised the intra-day gains and the index finally closed at 12,495.68 points with a net gain of 91.44 points.
Trading activities further improved on the back of increasing participation of local retail investors and foreign participants and the daily volumes at ready counter increased to 233.268 million shares as compared to 205.563 million shares traded on Thursday. The off-shore investors were net buyers of shares worth 2.2 million dollars.
Total market capitalisation increased by Rs 24 billion to Rs 3.257 trillion. Of the total 340 active scrips, 138 closed in positive and 121 in negative while the value of 81 stocks remained unchanged. Jahangir Siddiqui Co was the volume leader with 30.603 million shares and gained Re 0.24 to close at Rs 9.41. DG Khan Cement lost Re 0.52 to close at Rs 25.16 with 27.203 million shares. Lafarge Pakistan inched up by Re 0.08 to close at Rs 2.44 with 18.541 million shares. Fauji Cement decreased by Re 0.19 to close at Rs 4.79 with 13.573 million shares. Azgard Nine gained Re 0.59 to close at Rs 6.72 with 23.660 million shares.
In the banking sector, Bank Al Falah and NBP surged by Re 0.25 and Rs 1.89 to close at Rs 13.20 and Rs 49.08 with 12.183 million shares and 11.446 million shares respectively. Fatima Fertiliser Co lost Re 0.05 to close at Rs 23.93 with 7.767 million shares while Engro Corp increased by Rs 6.14 to close at Rs 133.99 with 5.472 million shares. Lotte Pakistan PTA closed at Rs 8.57, down Re 0.01 with 5.262 million shares.
Millat Tractors and Attock Petroleum were the highest gainers increasing by Rs 21.75 and Rs 18.85 to close at Rs 456.76 and Rs 449.42 respectively while Atlas Honda and Shahtaj Sugar were the worst losers declining by Rs 5.66 and Rs 3.29 to close at Rs 130.29 and Rs 62.51 respectively.
Hasnain Asghar Ali at Aziz Fidahusein Co said that expectations of likely increase in trade value and turnover with the neighbours in post trilateral talk era, while optimism on timely implementation of the committed infrastructural changes mainly on CGT computation and collection and high expectations from various entities conducting meetings for annual and bi-annual results, kept the market sentiment upbeat.
The said the day-end squaring not only disallowed the index to sustain intra-day high, the index, upon massive selling by the intra-day traders closed below 12,500, psychological, caution was therefore evident ahead of rollover period next week, wherein corporate announcements and roll-over pressure will dictate the proceedings.