KARACHI, June 29: Trading remained lacklustre on the Karachi stock exchange on the last session of the financial year 2011-12. The KSE-100 index slipped lightly by 4.01 points to settle at 13,801.41 points on Friday.

Traders said that though volumes were slightly up over Thursday, much of that could be attributed to 'churning' by retail investors and adjustment of portfolio by institutional investors before the close of accounting books on Saturday.

The volatility of 80 points between the high and low on the KSE-100 index proved the point. The fact that except one, all scrips with the highest volume changed prices by less than rupee one, reflected the lack of investment interest. There was mix of high dividend yield shares and second tier stocks that came up for trading on Friday, but the heavyweight Oil and Gas Development Company (OGDC) stock which rose by a sizeable Rs1.80 made the difference as market would have otherwise displayed a bigger fall. The morning reports from some brokerage houses that portrayed a dismal picture for the stocks which gained just 10pc in the financial year 2011-12 was a further dampener on investment spirit.

Most retail investors, therefore, preferred to stay on the sidelines and wait for fresh buying to commence on Monday for the next financial year. Foreign investors offloaded equities worth $1.09 million on Friday.

Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp stated that the Pakistan stocks closed lower amid concerns for global markets uncertainty. Thin trade was witnessed pending judicial decisions on NRO implementation. Rising political uncertainty, fall in foreign exchange reserves played a catalyst role in bearish sentiments despite hopes for improvement in Pak-US ties on possibility of resumption of Nato supply. However, other analysts said that the re-opening of the Nato supply route to Afghanistan seemed still obscure as the statement by Defence Minister Naveed Qamar said that Pakistan had not backtracked on its demand of a US apology over the Salala attack.

There was nothing significant in the news bag. The State Bank of Pakistan on Thursday reported that the country's liquid foreign exchange reserves had declined by $82.3 million to $14.964b as on June 22, from $15.46 billion a week earlier, mainly due to debt repayment.

Samar Iqbal, equity dealer at Topline Securities, commented that the activity was mixed on Friday.

Fertilizer stocks remained in the limelight after confusing news regarding increase in gas prices.

KSE-30 index fell by 10.08 points to 11,922.13 points. Volume of trade stood at 74 million shares on Friday up by 17 per cent over 63 million shares that changed hands the previous day.

Trading value, however, saw a bigger rise of 32 per cent to Rs3.039 billion, from Rs2.304 billion. Market capitalisation stood down by Rs2 billion to Rs3.518 trillion, from Rs3.520 trillion the earlier day.

In all, 447 stocks came up for trading on Friday. A total of 147 shares were losers and 109 gainers with 191 scrips finishing at their previous level.

The biggest increase was noted in UniLever Pakistan, which gained Rs60.65 to Rs7,078.84, followed by Attock Petroleum up by Rs9.32 to Rs474.37. The losers were led by UniLever Food, down by Rs130.61 to Rs2,619.39 and Nestle Pakistan, which lost Rs69.39 to Rs4014.85.

On the active list, Fauji Fertilizer sported the highest volume of 6m shares with the stock losing 89 paisa to Rs111.05. Fatima Fertilizer gained 11 paisa to Rs24.67 on 5m shares, Soneri Bank slid 10 paisa to Rs7.39 on 5m shares, Jah.Sidd.Co declined by 23 paisa to Rs12.41 on 4m shares, National Bank of Pakistan fell by 49 paisa to Rs43.54 on 3m shares, Lotte PakPTA down 7 paisa to Rs7.03 on 3m shares, Bankislami Pakistan added another 40 paisa to Rs10.70 on 3m shares, Engro Foods plunged by Rs1.01 to Rs64.45 on 3m shares, D.G.K Cement fell by 73 paisa to Rs39.38 on 2m shares and Al-Abbas Cement closed at Rs4.80 after losing 9 paisa on 2m shares.