KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Thursday witnessed mixed trend over investor concerns arising due to higher fuel prices and overheated commodities cycle.
The market opened on a positive note, however selling pressure on investor concerns over increasing oil and commodity prices in the international market forced the market to slip in negative zone. The oil prices increased to 8-year high. WTI crude oil hit $115.51 per barrel while Brent crude oil reached $119 per barrel.
The benchmark KSE-100 Index hit 44,706.46 points intra-day high and 44,312.74 points intra-day low before closing at 44,525.72 points, up 11.60 points or 0.03 percent.
Trading activity remained low as daily volumes on ready counter decreased to 188.666 million shares as compared to 235.034 million shares traded on Wednesday while total daily traded value on ready counter declined to Rs 7.361 billion from previous day’s Rs 9.346 billion.
BRIndex100 lost 2.73 points or 0.06 percent to close at 4,514.76 points with total daily turnover of 155.937 million shares.
BRIndex30 closed at 16,687.17 points, down 93.4 points or 0.56 percent with total daily trading volumes of 92.351 million shares.
Foreign investors however remained net buyers of shares with fresh net inflow of $1.243 million. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 6 billion to Rs 7.654 trillion. Out of total 358 active scrips, 209 closed in negative and 116 in positive while the value of 33 stocks remained unchanged.
TRG was the volume leader with 15.140 million shares and gained Rs 0.41 to close at Rs 79.13 followed by OGDC that increased by Rs 1.99 to close at Rs 94.98 with 11.658 million shares. Fauji Cement closed at Rs 17.11, down Rs 0.06 with 8.871 million shares.
Rafhan Maize and Sanofi-Aventis were the top gainers increasing by Rs 200.00 and Rs 61.00 respectively to close at Rs 11,500.00 and Rs 960.00 while Nestle Pakistan and Sapphire Textile were the top losers declining by Rs 205.00 and Rs 55.90 respectively to close at Rs 5540.00 and Rs 923.03.
An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the market opened under pressure as inflationary concerns arise due to higher fuel prices and overheated commodities cycle. Cement sector stayed in the red zone due to mounting international coal prices.
Moreover, trade deficit widened by 82.2 percent during the first eight months (July-February) of the current fiscal year 2021-22 and reached $31.959 billion compared to $17.535 billion during the same period of 2020-21. Main board activity remained dull. In the last trading hour, value buying was observed mainly in the E&P sector.
Sectors contributing to the performance include E&P (up 131.6 points), Power (up 21.7 points), Fertilizer (up 13.5 points), Inv. Banks (9.1 points) and Automobile Assembler (up 4.3 points).
BR Automobile Assembler Index gained 13.73 points or 0.15 percent to close at 9,177.78 points with total turnover of 6.938 million shares.
BR Cement Index declined by 61.86 points or 1.17 percent to close at 5,216.89 points with 19.523 million shares.
BR Commercial Banks Index lost 8.12 points or 0.08 percent to close at 10,009.61 points with 9.408 million shares.
BR Power Generation and Distribution Index inched up by 41.33 points or 0.71 percent to close at 5,848.06 points with 12.359 million shares.
BR Oil and Gas Index increased by 71.76 points or 1.78 percent to close at 4,105.69 points with 25.653 million shares.
BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 3,382.17 points, down 37.57 points or 1.1 percent with 37.757 million shares.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
Comments
Comments are closed.