KSE swells in lackluster trade amid security concerns

Investors showed lack of interest in Pakistan's Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) on Monday amid fresh wave of terrorism in northwestern province over weekend which cut the volumes to more than half but the key index managed to keep the bullish trend as it finished above 23,600 points.The benchmark KSE 100-Index swelled by 0.vacuum bottle19 percent or 44.36 points to close at 23,639.97 points on Monday as against 23,595.61 points recorded on Friday.The KSE All Share Index inched up by 0.05 percent or 7.88 points to end at 16,928.86 points, the KSE 30-Index gained 0.27 percent or 48.16 points to conclude at 18,12.57 points, whereas the KMI 30-Index shed 0.04 percent or 13.92 points to finish the inaugural session of the week at 39,263.68 points.The Karachi Stock Exchange commenced the trading session on a positive note and soon the key index breached the psychological 23, 600 levels and soon it hit the intraday highest level of 23,681.13.However, the trading remained range-bound following lack of interest by investors and soon the main index fell into the red ink where at one stage it hit the lowest level of the day of 23, 516.08 before another bullish rally carbon prepregelevated it close to its intraday highs but last-gasp selling forced it to close with meager gains.With volume of only 4.4 billion rupees, market witnessed dull and ranged-bound activity where no major triggers forced investors to stay sidelined. 

Roll over of future contracts also caused investors to stay cautious and only telecom sector remained on investors'radar as they expected better earnings after government measures to curb grey trafficking.Oil stocks witnessed profit-taking while banking stocks kept rallying as MCB Bank gained 2 percent, National Bank of Pakistan rose by 2.double sided tape5 percent, and United Bank increased by 1.7 percent.The market volumes plunged by 125.136 million shares to 150.536 million shares, the market capitalization inched down by 242.657 million rupees (2.426 million U.S. dollars) to 5.5427 trillion rupees (55.427 billion dollars), while the KSE trading value slumped by 5.564 billion rupees (55.carbon cloth643 million dollars) to 4.369 billion rupees (43.698 million dollars) on Monday.In broader market, a total of 369 companies changed hands during the course of trading on Monday where prices of 173 issues advanced, 165 declined, while values of 31 other scrips stayed unchanged at previous week's levels.Telecard Limited was the top traded company of the day with trading of 28.256 million shares, followed by WorldCall Telecom and National Bank of Pakistan with turnovers of 10.586 million shares and 9.deep groove ball bearing308 million shares, respectively.Wyeth Pakistan Limited was the top price gainer of the day with increment of 191.10 rupees (1.91 dollars) to 4,013.10 rupees (40. 13 dollars) while on the other hand Unilever FoodXD led the major price shedders with decrement of 119 rupees (1.19 dollars) to finish at 5,000 (50 dollars).