Index down 55.62 points

After witnessing a range-bound activity during the outgoing week ended March 16, 2012, the KSE-100 index finally closed at the level of 13,297.12 points, down 55.62 points on week-on-week basis.
Trading activity however further improved as the average daily volumes at ready counter increased by 12.7 percent on week-on-week basis to 400.15 million shares as compared to previous week's average of 355.05 million shares. Total market capitalisation declined by Rs 30 billion on week-on-week basis to stand at Rs 3.442 trillion.
The foreign investors remained net buyers of shares worth $1.6 million during the week as compared to inflow of $7.5 million in the previous week.
The market opened on a positive note on Monday and the index gained 29.80 points to close at 13,382.54 points with total volume of 576.823 million shares.
On Tuesday, the investors opted for profit taking and the index lost 98.89 points to close at 13,283.65 points with 313.592 million shares.
Investors' interest in some selective stocks on Wednesday supported the index to register an increase of 77.02 points to close at 13,360.67 points with 347.208 million shares. This trend continued on Thursday and the index gained another 90.40 points to close at 13,451.07 points with 336.913 million shares.
On Friday, the investors once again opted for profit taking and the index declined by 153.95 points to close the week at 13,297.12 points with 426.213 million shares.
Hasan Raza, an analyst at InvestCap said that the market remained range-bound with corrective spells during the week as the index lost 56 points, however investors' confidence remained intact as daily average volume stood at 400 million shares.
In line with previous week, most of the activity was witnessed in low tier scrips as total traded value declined by 11.99 percent to $78.5 million.
Naveed Tehsin at JS Global Capital said that the signs of consolidation were evident during the week as investors adopted a cautious approach and booked profits in selective blue chip stocks.
The fertiliser sector remained under pressure due to reports of urea off-take witnessing a decline in February due to availability of government of Pakistan's subsidised imported urea. It is for this reason FFC, ENGRO, FFBL and FATIMA underperformed the market by five percent, 5.2 percent, 3.8 percent and 7.4 percent respectively. Moreover, FBR's budgetary proposal to reduce corporate tax rate to 30 percent was another highlight during the week.