Late profit-booking stalls bulls as KSE ends flat

A late spell of profit-booking hurt bullish momentum at Pakistan's Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) on Tuesday as the main index inched up slightly amid lower participation as investors look to exit ahead of a long weekend. The Karachi Stock Exchange authorities announced in a statement the other day that the Karachi bourse would remain closed on Oct. 26-29 on account of auspicious holy occasion of Eid-ul-Adha, which means Thursday would be the last trading session for the ongoing week. The benchmark KSE 100-Index inched up by 0.03 percent or 5.21 points to close at 15,853.84 levels on Tuesday as against close of 15,848.63 levels recorded on Monday. The KSE All Share Index dipped marginally by 0.35 points to end at 11,148.37 levels, the KSE 30-Index shed 0.08 percent or 10.98 points to conclude at 12,962.72 levels, whereas the KMI 30-Index swelled by 0.03 percent or 8.73 points to finish the day at 27,775. 30 levels here. The Karachi Stock Exchange started Tuesday's trading activities on a strong bullish mode with the main index scampering past the psychological figure of 15,900 levels within the first half an hour of trade. The buying activities continued which helped the main index to achieve its intraday highest level of 15,937.10 before the halfway mark. However, the key index faced stiff resistance after hitting the intraday highest level and kept losing value during the rest of the session where it hit the lowest level of the day of 15,840.97, right at the stroke of closing bells, before ending just a shade higher. Market volumes declined further by 45.789 million shares to 103. 330 million shares on Tuesday as against trading of 149.119 million shares recorded on Monday as investors are opting to play it safe ahead of holidays. Market capitalization decreased by 2.390 billion rupees (25.160 million U.S. dollars) to 3.962 trillion rupees (41.708 billion U.S. dollars) on Tuesday when compared with market capitalization worth 3.964 trillion rupees (41.733 billion U.S. dollars) reported the other day. As per the figures released by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited (NCCPL) for Monday, the foreign investors came up with net buying worth 52.693 million rupees (0.554 million U.S. dollars). In broader market, a total of 348 companies changed hands during the course of trading on Tuesday where prices of 176 issues closed in the green territory, 150 culminated in red terrain, whereas values of 22 other scrips stayed unchanged at Monday's levels. Dera Ghazi Khan Cement XD was the top traded company of the day as investors associated high hopes of strong financial result by the company which is going to announce its balance sheet on Wednesday. The DGKC topped the list with trading of 7.173 million shares in its scrip, followed by Jahangir Siddiqui Company Limited, Pace Pakistan Limited, Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited, Lucky Cement XD, and Engro Foods Limited with turnovers of 6.002 million shares, 5.453 million shares, 4.519 million shares, 3.935 million shares, and 3.848 million shares, respectively. Bata Pakistan Limited emerged as the top price gainer of the day with an increment of 41.77 rupees (about 43.96 U.S. cents) in its per share price that ended at 1,419.33 rupees (about 14.94 U.S. dollars) while on the other hand Colgate Palmolive led the major price decliners with drop of 20.45 rupees (about 21.52 U.S. cents) to finish the day at 1,349.55 rupees (about 14.20 U.S. dollars).