PSX posts nominal gains: BRIndex100 ends flat

KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Monday closed on a positive note on the back of healthy buying, mainly by local investors.

BRIndex100 gained 3.59 points or 0.08 percent to close at 4,271.06 points. BRIndex100 hit intraday high of 4,300.86 and intraday low of 4,263.28 points. Volumes stood at 360.405 million shares.

BRIndex30 increased by 66.37 points or 0.3 percent to close at 22,153.56 points with a turnover of 192.507 million shares.

The KSE-100 Index surged by 54.71 points or 0.13 percent and closed at 41,110.93 points. Trading activities improved significantly as daily volumes on ready counter increased to 451.737 million shares as compared to 238.567 million shares traded on previous session.

The foreign investors however remained on the selling side and withdrew $790,949 from the Pakistan capital market. Total market capitalization increased by Rs 40 billion to Rs 7.650 trillion. Out of total 413 active scrips, 198 closed in positive and 196 in negative while the value of 19 stocks remained unchanged.

BankIslami Pak was the volume leader with 40.929 million shares and gained Rs 0.94 to close at Rs 9.93 followed by TRG Pak that declined by Rs 4.53 to close at Rs 58.68 with 40.129 million shares. Pak Tobacco and Nestle Pakistan were the top gainers increasing by Rs 99.00 and Rs 68.33 respectively to close at Rs 1779.00 and Rs 6068.33 while Sapphire Fiber and Sapphire Textile were the top losers declining by Rs 65.75 and Rs 55.24 respectively to close at Rs 810.98 and Rs 840.01.

BR Automobile Assembler Index plunged by 95.04 points or 1.18 percent to close at 7,978.06 points with total turnover of 3.156 million shares.

BR Cement Index surged by 69.02 points or 1.24 percent to close at 5,651.16 points with 49.427 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index lost 28.24 points or 0.34 percent to close at 8,354.41 points with 71.750 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index gained 36.93 points or 0.72 percent to close at 5,196.25 points with 12.512 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index inched up by 29.78 points or 0.72 percent to close at 4,190.76 points with 36.538 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index declined by 66.48 points or 3.62 percent to close at 1,771.51 points with 61.126 million shares.

Maaz Mulla at JS Global Capital said that bulls dominated the KSE-100 Index, where the index touched a high of plus 255 points. However later in the day, the market declined to close at 41,111 level, up 55 points.

From the steel sector, ISL (up 2.2 percent) and ASL (up 2.4 percent) further increased CRC and HDGC prices by Rs 2,000/ton effective from September 01, 2020. This is the third increase so far into the first quarter of FY21, cumulatively amounting to Rs 8,000/ton.

Cement sector gained to close higher than their previous day close where DGKC (up 2.5 percent), KOHC (up 1.4 percent), LUCK (up 1.5 percent), FCCL (up 0.9 percent) and MLCF (up 0.6 percent) were the major movers of the mentioned sector.

Pressure was witnessed in the banking space where HBL (down 0.6 percent), UBL (down 1.5 percent), MCB (down 0.4 percent) and JSBL (down 1.8 percent) closed in the negative zone.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020