Equities edge up

KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Thursday witnessed rangebound activity due to investors’ lack of interest. The benchmark KSE-100 Index hit 43,016.60 points intraday high and 42,861.64 points intraday low before closing at 42,903.65 points, up 23.34 points or 0.05 percent.

Trading activity slightly improved as total daily volumes on the ready counter increased to 153.126 million shares as compared to 138.573 million shares traded Wednesday while daily traded value on ready counter increased to Rs 5.861 billion against previous session’s Rs 5.140 billion.

BRIndex100 inched up by 4.25 points or 0.1 percent to close at 4,330.19 points with total daily turnover of 116.612 million shares.

BRIndex30 gained 49.03 points or 0.3 percent to close at 16,296.46 points with total daily trading volumes of 76.739 million shares.

Foreign investors remained net sellers of shares worth $147,687. Total market capitalization increased by Rs 20 billion to Rs 6.851 trillion. Out of total 345 active scrips, 184 closed in positive and 128 in negative while the value of 33 stocks remained unchanged.

WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 25.621 million shares and gained Rs 0.07 to close at Rs 1.45 followed by Hascol Petroleum that inched up by Rs 0.12 to close at Rs 7.96 with 9.135 million shares. TRG Pak closed at Rs 147.16, up Rs 0.22 with 9.105 million shares.

Allawasaya Textile and Pak Tobacco were the top gainers increasing by Rs 209.61 and Rs 52.00 respectively to close at Rs 3004.48 and Rs 922.00 while Sapphire Fiber and Siemens Pak were the top losers declining by Rs 67.01 and Rs 65.36 respectively to close at Rs 1150.00 and Rs 817.05.

“Another rangebound session was witnessed at the PSX,” an analyst at Arif Habib Limited said.

The market opened in the green zone but due to the ongoing political uncertainty, investors chose to book profits at higher levels. Given President’s final approval for the COAS appointment remained pending, investor confidence remained lackluster. This resulted in lower market participation. Volumes on the main-board remained sluggish, with third-tier stocks continuing to lead in terms of volume.

Sectors contributing to the performance include Fertilizer (up 19.6 points), Tobacco (up 17.3 points), Cement (up 14.7 points), Inv Banks/Inv Cos/Securities Cos (up 11.8 points) and Power Generation and Distribution (up 9.8 points).

BR Automobile Assembler Index decreased by 57.98 points or 0.65 percent to close at 8,860.79 points with total turnover of 9.293 million shares.

BR Cement Index gained 20.35 points or 0.45 percent to close at 4,504.82 points with 7.317 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index lost 9.97 points 0.12 percent to close at 8,479.48 points with 16.731 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index inched up by 23.84 points or 0.35 percent to close at 6,785.27 points with 6.301 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index added 4.62 points or 0.12 percent to close at 3,897.77 points with 18.015 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 4,891.95 points, down 17.32 points or 0.35 percent with 54.804 million shares.

Mubashir Anis Naviwala at JS Global Capital said that the bourse witnessed rangebound activity due to rollover week. The KSE-100 moved between 150 points and touched a high of 43,014 to close the day at 42,903 points with a gain of 23 points.

Value traded improved 14 percent from Wednesday while traded volume increased 11 percent to 153 million shares with WTL (up 5.1 percent), TRG (up 0.1 percent), HASCOL (up 1.5 percent), JSBL (up 3.8 percent) and DFML (up 10 percent) among the top volume contributors.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022