Profit-takers force KSE down for sixth straight day

Pakistan's Karachi Stock Exchange ( KSE) remained under the clutches of bears on Thursday as profit- taking by institutions and individual investors handed it the sixth straight bearish session with turnovers also showing meager value. The benchmark KSE 100-Index plunged 0.7 percent or 180.13 points to 25,506.80 points Thursday as against 25,686.93 points reported Wednesday. The KSE All Share Index slumped 0.83 percent or 159.75 points to 19,079.51 points, the KSE 30-Index declined 0.54 percent or 101. 7 points to 18,566.94 points, whereas the KMI 30-Index depleted 0. 8 percent or 340.41 points to 42,094.15 points. During Thursday's trading session, the key index hit an intraday high of 25,719.69 points as against an intraday low of 25, 442.66 points. Market continued to slide amid prevailing weak sentiment as government is facing a dilemma to either continue with the talks process with the warring militants or launch a full-fledge military operation in the North Waziristan Agency (NWA). Hub Power Company and Nishat Chunian Limited kept on sliding after their lower than expected results a day before where Hubco lost 4 percent in share value while NCL closed at 5 percent lower limit. Profit-taking was also witnessed in index heavyweights like Oil and Gas Development Company which lost 2 rupees per share and Pakistan State Oil which closed 1.4 percent down. Market volumes grew by 11.165 million shares to 196.928 million shares, capitalization decreased by 52.205 billion rupees (497.193 million U.S. dollars) to 6.219 trillion rupees (59.228 billion dollars), whereas trading value swelled by 28.028 million rupees ( 266,937 dollars) to 6.625 billion rupees (63.1 million dollars). Among 366 active scrips Thursday, prices of 229 issues declined, 114 advanced, whereas 23 other companies recorded no change in their scrip values. Bank of Punjab Right, TRG Pakistan Limited, and Lafarge Pakistan were the top traded companies with volumes of 28.416 million shares, 26.302 million shares, and 9.612 million shares, respectively. Unilever Foods led the top gainers with jump of 350 rupees (3. 33 dollars) per share to close at 9,350 rupees (89.04 dollars) while on the contrary Nestle Pakistan topped the major price shedders with 487.25 rupees (4.64 dollars) per share loss before finishing at 9,257.75 rupees (88.16 dollars).