KARACHI - Bearish activity witnessed at the KSE on institutional profit-taking as a result the KSE-100 index lost 70.83 points or down by 0.21pc to close at 34,261.60 points on Friday.
The market succumbed to profit taking toward the end of the week after good corporate result from bellwether stocks inspired a rally through the week. PSO down by 2.2pc, Engro by 1.15pc and Fatima by 3.18pc ended up as major decliners of the day as participants kept a watchful eye on consistent selling from foreigners. The banking sector showed resilience with MCB up 1.46pc and HBL rose 0.53pc gaining on anticipation that the State Bank would finally bring to an end its streak of rate cuts after the local currency slid to PKR105.50 versus the greenback. K-Electric (KEL PA) up 1.47pc was volume leader for the day after “electrifyingly” good results yesterday warranted the bullish move. Impressive growth in core profitability of KEL (Profit before tax for KEL jumped an astonishing 100pc) makes for a very compelling bull case for the company going forward, observed analyst Ovais Ahsan
Traded volume today increased to 196m shares as compared to 192m shares changed hand yesterday, while traded value decreased to Rs.9.2b/ $89m.
Out of total 342 traded companies in the session, 134 concluded in advance, 188 in decline while 20 remained unchanged.
Major activity witnessed in the stocks of K-Electric, Peace (Pak) and TRG Pak with volume 30.6m shares, 21.6m shares and 11.3m shares respectively.