Market Watch: KSE-100 gains 24 points to end week in a brighter mood

KARACHI:

The Karachi Stock Exchange’s (KSE) benchmark 100-share index recovered marginally on the last trading day of the week and gained 0.20% or 24.39 points to close at 11,937.81 points compared to 11,913.42 on Thursday.

Stocks ended higher but in thin trade as most investors avoided taking fresh positions ahead of the weekend. “The volumes were pretty low today and trade was limited to a few stocks,” said Shuja Rizvi, a dealer at Al-Hoqani Securities.

Turnover was better on Friday as it increased to 38.84 million shares compared with the two-month low volume of 28.66 million shares traded on Thursday. Shares of 304 companies were traded during the last session of the week.

At the end of the day, 99 stocks closed higher, 109 declined while 96 remained unchanged. Despite a better turnover, the value of shares traded during the day was just slightly higher at Rs3,104.9 million compared to Rs3,103.2 million a day earlier.

Bank Al-Falah was the volume leader with 11.2 million shares, gaining Rs0.28 to finish at Rs12.07. It was followed by Fatima Fertiliser Company with 7.3 million shares, losing Rs0.11 to close at Rs23.05 and Lotte Pak PTA with 1.62 million shares, gaining Rs0.24 to close at Rs10.78.

Bhanero Textiles was the major gainer of the day as its share prices increased by Rs9.95 to close at Rs238.53, followed by Indus Motors which gained Rs5.59 to close at Rs209.53. Unilever Pak Ltd has been taking some trashing as it was the major loser of the day second time consecutively and lost Rs47.64 to close at Rs5479.96 followed by Wyeth Pak Limited which declined by Rs20 to end at Rs680 on Friday.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 19^th, 2011.