Stock market depressed

KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Wednesday remained under pressure and closed in red zone as investors opted to book profits on available margins.

The PSX opened negative and lack of participation led the market to trade in red zone for majority of the session with low trading activities.

The benchmark KSE-100 Index hit 42,191.76 points intraday high and 41,951.28 points intraday low before closing at 42,007.14 points, down 148.34 points or 0.35 percent.

Trading activity remained low as total daily volumes on ready counter decreased to 238.657 million shares as compared to 304.838 million shares traded on Tuesday while total daily traded value on ready counter declined to Rs 7.853 billion against Tuesday’s Rs 9.845 billion.

BRIndex100 lost 24.19 points or 0.57 percent to close at 4,223.08 points with total daily turnover of 219.216 million shares.

BRIndex30 declined by 348.64 points or 2.12 percent to close at 16,103.26 points with total daily trading volumes of 179.527 million shares.

Foreign investors also remained net sellers of shares worth $256,992. The market capitalization declined by Rs 12 billion to Rs 6.836 trillion. Out of total 353 active scrips, 204 closed in negative and 122 in positive while the value of 27 stocks remained unchanged.

K-Electric was the volume leader with 34.446 million shares and gained Rs 0.10 to close at Rs 3.06 followed by WorldCall Telecom that lost Rs 0.05 to close at Rs 1.51 with 30.541 million shares. Telecard Limited increased by Rs 0.36 to close at Rs 11.66 with 16.271 million shares. Nestle Pakistan and Reliance Cotton were the top gainers increasing by Rs 200.00 and Rs 36.00 respectively to close at Rs 5,980.00 and Rs 594.00 while Sanofi-Aventis and Bhanero Textile were the top losers declining by Rs 85.50 and Rs 84.37 respectively to close at Rs 1,054.50 and Rs 1,040.63.

An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that a negative session was witnessed at PSX, as lack of participation led the index to trade in red zone for majority of trading session. Volumes remained dry in the main board whereas, 3rd tier stocks continued to remain board leaders. Technology sector remained in the limelight.

Sectors contributing to the performance include Technology (down 218.5 points), Cement (down 39.2 points), Chemical (down 11.6 points), Vanaspati & Allied Industries (down 10.9 points) and E&P (down 7.8 points).

BR Automobile Assembler Index gained 22.38 points or 0.25 percent to close at 9,090.41 points with total turnover of 1.743 million shares.

BR Cement Index lost 19.6 points or 0.42 percent to close at 4,629.40 points with 11.759 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index inched up by 0.87 points or 0.01 percent to close at 8,218.00 points with 5.139 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index fell by 20.77 points or 0.32 percent to close at 6,404.58 points with 39.172 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index added 23.26 points or 0.63 percent to close at 3,725.80 points with 8.536 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index declined by 106.18 points or 2.36 percent to close at 4,395.46 points with 72.427 million shares.

Waqar Iqbal at JS Global Capital said that the market sentiment continued to remain bearish due to concerns over the economic outlook and geopolitical situation.

Traded volume stood at 239 million shares where KEL (up 3.4 percent), WTL (down 3.2 percent), TELE (up 3.2 percent), PRL (down 2.2 percent and CNERGY (down 2.9 percent) were the highest contributors.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022