Local equities continued to trade thin volumes despite further relaxation in interest rate cut and sell-off in E&P pushed the benchmark in negative zone thereby keeping the red-numbers prominent, at closing bell, 16,800 psychological was however maintained at the session end, he added.
On the first trading of the week, market opened in green zone and during the initial hours market gained some 69 points to 16,914 points, however the level could not sustain due to institutional profit taking. The index also hit intraday high level of 16,914.23 points and low level of 16,786 points.
Very thin trading activity was witnessed and overall 91.588 million shares were traded at ready counter compared to 129.486 million shares traded on Friday. Among 355 active scrips, 129 closed in positive and 204 in negative while the share price of 22 stocks was remained unchanged. The market capitalisation decreased by Rs 5.652 billion to Rs 4.211 trillion from Rs 4.217 trillion on last trading day.
Among top 10 active scrips, Maple Leaf Cement was the volume leader and its share price declined by Re 0.09 to close at Rs 14.83 with 14.75 million share trading. Tariq Glass Ind gained Re 1 to close at Rs 21.05 and its some 5.1 million shares were traded. Share price of Jah Siddi Company decreased by Re 0.28 to Rs 16.7 with 3.59 million share trading. Fauji Cement and Byco Petroleum lost Re 0.04 and Re 0.30 to close at Rs 6.6 and Rs 11.01 with share trading of 3.52 million and 2.8 million respectively.
With 2.6 million turnover, share price of National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) declined by Re 0.42 to close at Rs 49.4. NIB Bank limited closed at Rs 2.36, down by Re 0.03, and its 2.04 million shares were traded. Share price pf D G Khan Cement declined by Re 0.04 to Rs 54.36 with two million turnover. Pak Elektron Ltd gained Re 0.17 to close Rs 9.18 while its turnover stood at 1.9 million. With 1.6 million share trading, Nishat Chun Power lost Re 0.20 to close at Rs 20.96.
Nestle Pakistan and Unilever Food remained the highest gainers as their share price was increased by Rs 149 and Rs 100 to close at Rs 4,850 and Rs 4,300 respectively. Island Textile and Salfi Textile were the worst looser and declined by Rs 28.03 and Rs 7.82 to close at Rs 1,024.71 and Rs 148.69 per share respectively. Commenting on the market situation Ahsan Mehanti - an analyst at Arif Habib - said that stocks closed bearish on institutional profit taking after below expected cut in SBP policy rate announced on Friday.
He said that concerns for political uncertainty after the Supreme Court call on political leader for contempt of court, limited foreign interest and uncertainty in global stocks and commodities played a catalytic role in bearish sentiments despite improved Pak-US relations and expectations for positive talks with IMF for revision of loan repayments. Intraday session support witnessed in selected banking and cement sector stocks on strong valuations, he added.