KSE ends range bound as investors stay indifferent

by Jawad Hussain

KARACHI, July 30 (Xinhua) -- Investors at Pakistan's Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) continued staying sidelined here Monday as the main index started the fresh week amid range bound trading activities.

The benchmark KSE 100-Index dipped by 0.1 percent or 14.87 points to close at 14,511.54 levels on Monday as against closing of 14,526.41 levels recorded on Friday.

The KSE All Share Index inched down by 0.05 percent or 4.83 points to end at 10,217.87 levels, the KSE 30-Index dropped 0.11 percent or 14.23 points to conclude at 12,567.47 levels, but the KMI 30-Index bucked the trend and swelled by 0.12 percent or 29.15 points to finish the day above psychological levels of 25,000 at 25,012.51 levels here.

The market started fresh week on a bullish note where the main index hit the intraday highest level of 14,560.51 during the first half an hour of trading activities.

However, investors turn-out was once again on the lower side as they remained sidelined owing to the holy month of Ramadan and lack of triggers in the market which reversed the initial bullish trend.

The main index continued shedding value and at one stage fell below 14,500 levels before touching the lowest level of the day of 14,492.30. However, last gasp buying activities then helped the main index to finish the day above psychological figure of 14,500.

Market volumes improved by 23.496 million shares to 81.835 million shares on Monday as against trading of 58.339 million shares recorded on final trading day of the week but the overall market activity remained lackluster due to reduced interest by the local individual investors.

Market capitalization declined by 1.725 billion rupees (18.449 million U.S. dollars) to 3.707 trillion rupees on Monday when compared with market capitalization worth 3.708 trillion rupees reported on Friday.

As per the figures released by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited (NCCPL) for Monday, the foreign investors came up with net selling worth 47.343 million rupees.

In broader market, a total of 280 companies changed hands during the course of trading activities on Monday where prices of 134 issues landed in the red territory, 123 closed in green zone, whereas values of 23 other scrips stayed unchanged at previous week's levels.

Bank Al-Falah Limited was the top traded company of the day with trading of 19.44 million shares in its scrip, followed by Dera Ghazi Khan Cement Limited, Lucky Cement, Maple Leaf Cement, Arif Habib Corporation, and Jahangir Siddiqui Company Limited with turnovers of 10.041 million shares, 6.787 million shares, 5.07 million shares, 3.461 million shares, and 2.574 million shares, respectively.

UniLever Pakistan was the top price gainer of the day with increment worth 368 rupees per share to close at 7,728 rupees while on the other hand Rafhan Maize SPOT led the major price decliners with decrement of 185 rupees to finish the day at 3,525 rupees.