Profit-taking in late hours on Monday minimised intra-day gains and the KSE-100 index closed at 11,310.35 points with a gain of 9.26 points with a record low volume. The market opened on a positive note and the index hit 11,375.48 points intra-day high. However, the momentum could not continue as investors opted for profit taking after mid-session.
Trading remained extremely low and the volume declined to 16-month record low level at 17.561 million shares as compared to 30.624 million shares traded on last trading session.
Market capitalisation increased by Rs 3 billion to Rs 2.933 trillion. Fatima Fertiliser Co was the volume leader with 3.381 million shares. However, it lost Re 0.04 to close at Rs 23.12. In the other fertiliser sector stocks, Engro Corp, Fauji Fertiliser Bin Qasim and Fauji Fertiliser Co declined by Re 0.12, Re 0.24 and Re 0.85 to close at Rs 98.29, Rs 46.74 and Rs 152.97 with 1.079 million shares, 0.6 million shares and 0.505 million shares respectively.
In the banking sector, NIB Bank closed at the previous day's level of Rs 1.49 with 1.634 million shares while SilkBank inched up by Re 0.13 to close at Rs 1.61 with 0.369 million shares. Jahangir Siddiqui Co gained Re 0.04 to close at Rs 4.12 with 1.198 million shares.
DG Khan Cement lost Re 0.08 to close at Rs 18.82 with 0.649 million shares. Nishat (Chunian) closed at the previous day's level of Rs 18.50 with 0.628 million shares. Pervez Ahmed lost Re 0.07 to close at Re 0.71 with 0.377 million shares.
Nestle Pakistan and Siemens Pak were highest gainers by Rs 138.66 and Rs 43.64 to close at Rs 2969.91 and Rs 932.53 respectively, while Unilever Pak Foods and Wyeth Pak were worst losers by Rs 30.00 and Rs 21.51 to close at Rs 1670.00 and Rs 760.39 respectively.
Hasnain Asghar Ali at Aziz Fidahusein Co said that while the stakeholders readjusted themselves with tougher economic, financial and political environment ahead, the equity market stayed on virtual close. The volume dropped to rock-bottom and the value of traded shares barely managed Rs 1 billion mark. December closing, however, kept syndicate active for maintaining the index values, kept positive on low volume strength in Nestle. This kept the likely low volume price erosion away, at least for the session.
With financial and economic front likely to stay gloomy due to various issues, including circular debt and debt repayment, the ongoing judicio-political and political-military matters will continue to keep the upside for the local equity markets confined. Caution is therefore visible, wherein the equity-specific funds would continue to stay in search for relatively safer stocks, while high priced stocks and those vulnerable to visible threats would continue to face renewed offloading on strength, he added.