Driven by one of its key stocks, the bourse experienced a day of significant fluctuations after a giant fertilizer producer announced a higher-than-expected payout.
However, despite the excitement, the market closed the session in the red yesterday as other sectors failed to draw interest.
The Karachi Stock Exchange’s (KSE) benchmark 100-share index ended the day’s trading with a decrease of 0.25% or 86.64 points to end at 34,570.30.
The session was largely dominated by Engro Fertiliser (+3.84%) closing at its new high after the company announced a surprise Rs3 per share dividend against market expectation of Rs1 share, pushing its holding company, Engro Corporation (+3.56%), to its recent high.
JS Global analyst Ovais Ahsan said the market saw profit-taking in the first session of the week with index heavyweights MCB Bank (-2.1%), Oil and Gas Development Company (-1%) and Fauji Fertiliser Company (-0.6%) seeing selling pressure.
“The cement sector saw intraday strength on the back of news that the World Bank has approved five energy projects. Lucky Cement (+1.43%) rallied with profit-taking in the latter half of the day.”
Trade volumes rose to 262 million shares compared to 257 million on Friday.
Shares of 372 companies were traded. Of these, 139 declined, 217 closed higher and 16 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs17.7 billion.
Jahangir Siddiqui and Company was the volume leader with 35.1 million shares, gaining Rs0.11 to close at Rs21.35. It was followed by Engro Fertiliser Limited with 21.2 million shares, gaining Rs3.41 to close at Rs92.17 and TRG Pakistan Limited with 15.3 million shares, gaining Rs0.13 to close at Rs15.53.
Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs530 million worth of shares during the trading session, according to data compiled by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.
