The Karachi share market on Tuesday witnessed negative trend and the KSE-100 index declined by 18.59 points, or 0.16 percent, to close at 11,825.06 points. The index hit 11,897.17 points intra-day high and 11,810.40 points low. Trading volume at ready counter declined to 113.285 million shares as compared to 116.8 million shares traded on Monday.
However, futures turnover surged to 5.359 million shares against 4.22 million shares. Market capitalisation declined by Rs 5.542 billion to Rs 3.214 trillion from Rs 3.219 trillion. Trading took place in 407 scrips, of which 230 scrips closed in the negative and 154 in the positive, and the value of 23 shares remained unchanged.
Bank Al-Falah was the volume leader with 12.47 million shares and gained Re 0.30 to close at Rs 10.94. National Bank increased by Re 0.85 to close at Rs 72.05 with trading volume of 9.22 million shares. Lotte Pakistan PTA surged by Re 0.15 to close at Rs 13.38 with 8.75 million shares. Nishat Mills surged by Rs 1.34 to close at Rs 63.35 with a volume of 6.95 million shares. Fauji Fertiliser Bin Qasim gained Rs 1.51 to close at Rs 36.48 with trading of 6.73 million shares.
With 6 million shares, Azgard Nine lost Re 0.23 to close at Rs 9.79. D G Khan Cement closed at Rs 30.85, down by Re 0.12 with 5.3 million shares. World Call Telecom decline by Re 0.21 to close at Rs 3 with 4 million shares.
JS growth fund increase by Re 0.21 to close at Rs 5.16 with 3.62 million shares and share price of Jahangir Sidd closed at Rs 11.57 with 3.55 million shares. Al-Ghazi Tractor and Island Textile were the highest gainers and gained Rs 9.86 and Rs 8.74 to close at Rs 231.23 and Rs 183.66 respectively, while Rafhan Maize products and Unilever Pakistan were the worst losers and lost Rs 90.50 and Rs 79.51 to close at Rs 2137.50 and Rs 4469.00 respectively.
Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Investments said that profit taking was witnessed in the overbought market. "Investors remained concerned over rising SPI inflation to over 22 percent Y-o-Y and rising political uncertainty despite continued foreign interest in banks, fertiliser, oil & gas scrips throughout the trading session on rising global commodity prices," he added.