Market watch: Market ends range-bound in dull session

KSE benchmark 100-share index crawls up two points.

KARACHI: The market managed to recover early losses and close range-bound on Monday as activity remained dull ahead of the long holidays.

The Karachi Stock Exchange’s (KSE) benchmark 100-share index crawled up 0.02 per cent or 2.12 points to end at 10,903.88 point level. Markets will be closed from Wednesday to Saturday because of Eid-ul-Fitr.

The session opened on a negative note as internal political rift reached new highs after remarks by former home minister Zulifqar Mirza a day earlier, however, the market managed to recover the early fall on select buying.

Institutional support in fertiliser and oil exploration companies helped the index close in positive territory, said Topline Securities equity dealer Samar Iqbal.

Banking stocks continued to slide as National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) closed at its lower limit on rumours of foreign selling. Foreign institutional investors’ were gross buyers of Rs220 million and gross sellers of Rs158 million, according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.

Moreover, Fauji Fertiliser Bin Qasim Limited (FFBL) also saw good volumes after improvement in DAP off-take numbers witnessed in July.

NBP was the volume leader with 7.66 million shares declining Rs1.9 to finish at Rs36.18. It was followed by FFBL with 3.83 million shares gaining Rs0.99 to close at Rs48.34 and Band Alfalah with 3.57 million shares losing Rs0.12 to close at Rs9.41.

Volumes fell and remained dull as only 37 million shares were traded on the first trading session of the week compared with the preceding trading session’s 45 million shares.

Shares of 275 companies were traded on Monday. At the end of the day 95 stocks closed higher, 98 declined while 82 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs1.75 billion.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 30^th,  2011.