BRIndex30 lost 10.72 points or 0.06 percent to close at 16,523.42 points with a turnover of 77.331 million shares. The KSE-100 Index increased by 64.25 points or 0.21 percent to close at 30,584.85 points. Trading activity remained low as daily volumes on ready counter decreased to 119.772 million shares as compared to 122.081 million shares traded Monday.
Foreign investors remained net sellers of shares worth $0.1 million. The market capitalization declined by Rs 2 billion to Rs 6.225 trillion. Out of total 331 active scrips, 181 closed in positive, 131 in negative while the value of 19 stocks remained unchanged.
Lotte Chemical was the volume leader with 8.352 million shares. It gained Re 0.11 to close at Rs 16.63 followed by Unity Foods that inched up by Re 0.07 to close at Rs 8.64 with 7.090 million shares. Bata Pak and Nestle Pakistan were the top gainers with Rs 18.12 and Rs 15.33, respectively to close at Rs 1,265.00 and Rs 6,182.00. Wyeth Pak and Sanofi-Aventis were the top losers with Rs 27.53 and Rs 26.00, respectively to close at Rs 621.00 and Rs 550.00.
BR Automobile Assembler Index gained 28.93 points or 0.6 percent to close at 4,889.48 points with total turnover of 1.776 million shares.
BR Cement Index increased by 83.03 points or 3.03 percent to close at 2,825.13 points with 19.955 million shares. BR Commercial Banks Index declined by 73.85 points or 1.0 percent to close at 7,321.43 points with 15.703 million shares.
BR Power Generation and Distribution Index surged by 114.56 points or 2.73 percent to close at 4,308.28 points with 7.011 million shares.
BR Oil and Gas Index decreased by 46.02 points or 1.38 percent to close at 3,298.03 points with 17.015 million shares.
BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 660.15 points, up 8.28 points or 1.27 percent with 6.308 million shares. An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the market went down by 568 points at a point in time, which was mainly caused by Privatization Commission''s decision to divest government''s holding in OGDC, PPL and Kapco. By mid-day, news of 10 percent offload in each company was making rounds, which brought significant selling pressure in these scrips, with major impact in OGDC and PPL.
By the end of session, however, the market staged a recovery and all the losses were reversed with an increase of 121 points in Index. The rebound was mainly brought by Power and Fertilizer sector.
Cement sector scrips also saw buying activity, resulting in DGKC hitting upper circuit while other cement sector stocks including MCLF and LUCK also saw buying interest. Cement sector led the volumes table with 19.9 million shares, followed by Banks (15.7 million shares) and Chemical (11.4 million shares).
Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (down 91 points), E&P (down 65 points), O&GMCs (down 14 points), Power (up 67 points), Fertilizer (up 62 points), Cement (up 58 points) and Inv. Banks (up 21 points).
Stocks that contributed positively include HUBC (up 62 points), ENGRO (up 44 points), LUCK (up 32 points), DAWH (up 27 points) and UBL (up 21 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include HBL (down 38 points), BAHL (down 37 points), OGDC (down 31 points), MCB (down 24 points) and PPL (down 21 points).