KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Thursday remained under pressure and closed in red zone as investors opted to book profit on available margins and avoided taking fresh position on concerns over rising coronavirus cases and fear of lockdown.
The benchmark KSE-100 Index declined by 153.05 points or 0.33 percent to close at 45,763.20 points. Trading activity remained low as daily volumes on ready counter decreased to 327.601 million shares as compared to 514.384 million shares traded Wednesday.
BRIndex100 lost 20.12 points or 0.42 percent to close at 4,728.40 points with total daily turnover of 257.251 million shares.
BRIndex30 plunged by 207.71 points or 1.05 percent to close at 19,519.11 points with a trading volume of 200.912 million shares.
Foreign investors however remained net buyers of shares worth $112,783. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 30 billion to Rs 7.832 trillion.
Out of total 353 active scrips, 196 closed in negative and 135 in positive while the value of 22 stocks remained unchanged.
Cnergyico PK was the volume leader with 74.075 million shares and gained Rs 0.43 to close at Rs 7.31 followed by WorldCall Telecom that closed at previous day’s closing level without any change with 47.814 million shares. Hascol Petroleum inched up by Rs 0.20 to close at Rs 7.11 with 23.397 million shares.
Unilever Foods and Sapphire Textile were the top gainers increasing by Rs 175.00 and Rs 64.51 respectively to close at Rs 20324.00 and Rs 924.71 while Nestle Pakistan and Pak Tobacco were the top losers declining by Rs 110.06 and Rs 47.12 respectively to close at Rs 5400.00 and Rs 1106.33.
Neelam Naz at JS Global Capital said that the bourse remained under pressure throughout the day due to lack of positive triggers.
Profit taking was witnessed across the board and the benchmark KSE-100 Index closed at 45,673, down by 153 points. Traded volume stood at 328 million shares with CNERGY (up 6.3 percent), WTL (0.00 percent), HASCOL (up 2.9 percent), TRG (down 31 percent) and MDTL (up 6.9 percent) being the highest contributors.
BR Automobile Assembler Index gained 19.84 points or 0.23 percent to close at 8,658.15 points with total turnover of 951,019 shares.
BR Cement Index decreased by 47.52 points or 0.81 percent to close at 5,789.53 points with 4.242 million shares.
BR Commercial Banks Index inched up by 2.18 points or 0.02 percent to close at 10,172.47 points with 15.006 million shares.
BR Power Generation and Distribution Index lost 12.2 points or 0.2 percent to close at 6,049.89 points with 4.792 million shares.
BR Oil and Gas Index closed at 3,882.95 points, down 3.52 points or 0.09 percent with 27.438 million shares.
BR Tech. & Comm. Index declined by 56.62 points or 1.34 percent to close at 4,156.38 points with 92.634 million shares.
Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corporation said that the stocks closed bearish on renewed concerns for Covid pandemic in global equities and uncertainty over approval of Finance Supplementary Bill in the NA to clear the IMF review.
He said surging trade/current account deficit and uncertainty over outcome of IMF board review next week played a catalyst role in bearish close.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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