KARACHI - Unexciting behaviour of the local equity market continued to hamper investor sentiments and kept them at bay on Wednesday as the KSE 100-index shed 29 points to close at 9,204 levels. Once again merely 20-stocks crossed over the one million share trading volume while only one stock breached the 10 million shares threshold. Mere 50bps discount rate cut was unable to provide any respite to the investor community. Brokers are quite concerned with the present low volumes being traded at the bourses, expressed analyst Bilal Asif at HMFS. The benchmark 100-index opened with green numbers on board, up by 26.72 points, while index was unable to sustain the upward movement. Stocks at the end of the day closed at 9,204.57 points with a loss of 29.13 points. Meanwhile, junior KSE 30-index shed 18.36 points to close at 9730.17 levels. Bearish activity was witnessed despite reduction in discount rate on investors concerns over high leverage cost, stated market expert Ahsan Mehanti adding, limited foreign interest, fall in international oil prices, rising political uncertainty over NRO issue played a catalyst role in negative activity at the KSE. Trading activity was slightly better as compared to the last trading session. The ready market volume stood at 82.421 million shares on Wednesday as compared to last trading session 74.754 million shares on Tuesday. Total trading value of the exchange further improved to Rs 3.681b against Rs 3.565b of last session. Karachi market capitalisation moved down to Rs 2.658tr, showing a loss of almost 7 billion rupees in just one day. Moreover, of 362 active stocks at the local bourse, 177 gained value, 163 lost while only 22 remained unchanged. BoP, after a long time, jumped back into action after expected recovery of bad loan from Haris Steel which is expected to improve operational viability of the bank. Penny stocks or third tier stocks climbed over the top ten volume leading companies including DSFL and BOSI. Mixed trend was witnessed among the top tier stocks from banking scrips, E&P sector and fertilizer sector. BOP remained in limelight and crowned as the volume leader of the day with the trading of 10.431 million shares, followed by JSCL (SPOT) with 6.102m shares, AHSL 5.786m shares, Bank Al-Falah 4.675m shares, OGDC 3.978m shares, Nishat Chunian 3.674m shares, Bosicor Pak 3.668m shares, Dewan Salman 3.444m shares, HUBCO 2.942m shares, NML 2.331m shares namely. Top gainers at the market include Bata Pak, up by Rs16/share to close at Rs926 with the trading of only 1 share, Hinopak Motors added Rs9.92/share, closing at Rs237.31, Indus Motors gained Rs7.72/share and its value was improved to Rs207.63, Sanofi-Aventis up by Rs7.20/share and closed at Rs156.04, Grays of Camb closed at Rs140.07, adding Rs6.67/share. Leading losers at the KSE include Wyeth Pak, down by Rs25/share and closed at Rs1,225, Unilever Food shed rs20.12/share and its total value was decreased to Rs1,444.88 with a tiny turnover of only 3 shares, Javedan Cement lost Rs4.50/share to close at Rs86, Al-Abbas Sugar down by Rs3.90/share, closing at Rs74.10, Mithchells Fruit lost Rs3.18/share to close at Rs60.60. Shrunken volumes showed that as if the investors are already in a holiday mood. The dull phase is expected to continue tomorrow and shall hamper the market sentiment. The real business may take place after the Eid holiday when investors would enter the market with fresh mind and strategies, Bilal added.