PSX witnesses uptick

KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Wednesday witnessed another rangebound session on Wednesday as investors remained on the sidelines due to prevailing economic and political situation in the country.

The market opened in red zone, however fresh buying supported it to close on slightly positive note.

The benchmark KSE-100 Index hit 41,874.07 points intraday high and 41,540.62 points intraday low before closing at 41,737.62 points, up 23.32 points or 0.06 percent.

The daily trading volumes on ready counter stood at 146.710 million shares as compared to 144.845 million shares traded on Tuesday while total daily traded value on ready counter increased to Rs 3.910 billion against previous session’s Rs 3.756 billion.

BRIndex100 inched up by 4.84 points or 0.12 percent to close at 4,167.59 points with total daily turnover of 116.766 million shares.

BRIndex30 gained 37.72 points or 0.25 percent to close at 15,185.59 points with total daily trading volumes of 71.306 million shares.

Foreign investors remained net sellers of shares worth $52,832. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 9 billion to Rs 6.627 trillion. Out of total 332 active scrips, 186 closed in negative and 126 in positive while the value of 20 stocks remained unchanged. TPL Properties was the volume leader with 15.755 million shares and gained Rs 0.27 to close at Rs 19.70 followed by Unity Foods that inched up by Rs 0.40 to close at Rs 16.02 with 8.262 million shares. Dewan Motors declined by Rs 1.24 to close at Rs 16.46 with 7.975 million shares.

Bhanero Textile and Pak Services were the top gainers increasing by Rs 74.10 and Rs 67.24 respectively to close at Rs 1063.00 and Rs 1279.17 while Rafhan Maize and Nestle Pakistan were the top losers declining by Rs 240.01 and Rs 149.99, respectively to close at Rs 9060.00 and Rs 5500.01.

An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the PSX had a rangebound session. The benchmark KSE-100 Index fluctuated in a narrow range throughout the day after the market opened in the red and quickly created a thin range of trading both ways.

Due to the ongoing unfavorable economic sentiments and political instability, investors remained on the sidelines. Volumes in the main board dried up, although expectations of the gas price hike kept the E&P sector in the limelight.

Sectors contributing to the performance include Technology & Communication (up 72.3 points), E&P (up 40.0 points), Miscellaneous (up 39.7 points), Textile Composite (up 7.2 points) and Vanaspati & Allied Industries (up 5.1 points).

BR Automobile Assembler Index decreased by 48.05 points or 0.59 percent to close at 8,155.40 points with total turnover of 8.326 million shares.

BR Cement Index lost 11.21 points or 0.28 percent to close at 3,996.00 points with 13.596 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index declined by 51.43 points or 0.61 percent to close at 8,379.37 points with 12.212 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index fell by 35.6 points or 0.53 percent to close at 6,625.15 points with 4.795 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index gained 21.27 points or 0.56 percent to close at 3,826.81 points with 16.034 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index increased by 74.24 points or 1.58 percent to close at 4,784.26 points with 25.144 million shares.

Muhammad Shuja Qureshi at JS Global Capital said that buying interest in select blue chip stocks helped the benchmark index close with a gain of 23 points at 41,738.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022