Market watch: Stocks end flat, volumes at three-month low

Benchmark KSE-100 index crawls up three points.

KARACHI: The stock market remained range-bound on the first trading session of the week as volumes fell to a three-month low.

The Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) benchmark 100-share index ended a marginal 0.02 per cent or 2.75 points higher at 11,946.09.

Investors stayed sidelined ahead of KSE board meeting which was scheduled later in the day, said Topline Securities equity dealer Samar Iqbal.

The number of shares traded fell to a paltry 68.83 million shares from Friday’s tally of 111.76 million shares.

Engro Corporation stock rose by 2.2 per cent to close at Rs214.64, churning up a slight rally in fertiliser stocks, after announcing better-than-expected results coupled with a cash dividend and bonus shares.

Pakistan International Airlines was the top gainer of the day following resumption of operations. The stock surged 14.8 per cent to close at Rs2.87.

Nihsat Chunian Limited, topping the volume chart with 7.5 million shares, closed at its upper limit on the back of record international cotton prices and expectations of better-than-expected results, said analysts.

It was followed by Lotte Pakistan PTA with 6.05 million shares, closing unchanged at Rs15.93 and Nimir Industrial Chemicals with 4.96 million shares, gaining Rs0.12 to close at Rs2.65.

Shares of 369 companies were traded on Monday. At the end of the day, 105 stocks closed higher, 150 declined and 114 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs2.79 billion.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 15^th, 2011.