KARACHI: Investors opted to bank profits as consolidation phase continued in blue chip stocks, with concerns over the law and order situation in the city.
The Karachi Stock Exchange’s (KSE) benchmark 100-share index fell 0.27% or 41.83 points to end at 15,357.59 point level.
“Activity remained confined in mid cap stocks particularly in the cement sector,” said Samar Iqbal, equity dealer at Topline Securities.
The market closed in negative primarily due to selling pressure on the index heavyweight Oil and Gas Development Company but cherry picking was seen in cement stocks amid improved dispatches for the month, added Iqbal.
Trade volumes rose but not by much and remained at the insignificant level of 87 million shares compared with Wednesday’s tally of 83 million shares. Volume activity remained dampened due to security concerns in the city.
Shares of 356 companies were traded on Thursday. At the end of the day 137 stocks closed higher, 167 declined while 52 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs2.7 billion.
Pakistan Telecommunication Company was the volume leader with 9.4 million shares gaining Rs0.31 to finish at Rs19.37. It was followed by Maple Leaf Cement with 5.5 million shares gaining Rs0.24 to close at Rs9.11 and DG Khan Cement with 4.3 million shares climbing Rs0.52 to close at Rs49.16.
Cement sector remained in the lime light continuously for the past three trading sessions as it was earlier reported that cement exports surged by 20.38% to 1.2 million tons worth $91.4 million in the first two months of the fiscal year 2012-13, according to the data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.
Healthy full year earnings announcements by Maple Leaf Cement this week, kept the script in the positive. The company converted losses of Rs1.8 billion last year to a profit of Rs496 million for the fiscal year 2011-12, according to a notice sent to the KSE on Tuesday.
Although, profit taking was witnessed in DG Khan Cement earlier in the day but the stock recovered and closed positive. Fecto cement also attracted investor interest by hitting its upper circuit-breaker, said Mujtaba Barakzai, analyst at JS Global Capital.
Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs14 million, according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 28th, 2012.
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