Stocks strengthen

KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Monday witnessed a positive trend due to aggressive buying, mainly in E&P sector.

The market opened in green zone and remained bullish for most part of the session, however news from political front invited selling that minimized intraday gains.

The benchmark KSE-100 Index crossed 42,000 points psychological level during the session to hit 42,291.56 points intra-day high. However, selling in various sectors forced the index into negative zone to hit 41,785.48 points intraday low. The index managed to close on slightly positive note at 41,856.85 points, up 62.98 points or 0.15 percent.

Trading activity also improved as daily volumes on ready counter increased to 289.274 million shares as compared to 272.742 million shares traded on last Friday while total daily traded value on ready counter increased to Rs 10.268 billion against previous session’s Rs 6.770 billion.

BRIndex100 gained 21.61 points or 0.52 percent to close at 4,215.31 points with total daily turnover of 231.153 million shares.

BRIndex30 increased by 244.36 points or 1.63 percent to close at 15,256.03 points with total daily trading volumes of 170.057 million shares.

Foreign investors however remained net sellers of shares worth $487,338. Total market capitalization increased by Rs 24 billion to Rs 6.407 trillion. Out of total 340 active scrips, 169 closed in negative and 147 in positive while the value of 24 stocks remained unchanged.

Hascol Petroleum was the volume leader with 42.448 million shares and gained Rs 0.50 to close at Rs 6.14 followed by Telecard Limited that inched up by Rs 0.22 to close at Rs 8.25 with 25.819 million shares. OGDC increased by Rs 6.32 to close at Rs 93.20 with 18.456 million shares.

Reliance Cotton and Ismail Industries were the top gainers increasing by Rs 48.24 and Rs 34.50 respectively to close at Rs 691.50 and Rs 494.60 while Rafhan Maize and Pak Services were the top losers declining by Rs 249.00 and Rs 140.69 respectively to close at Rs 8000.00 and Rs 1735.19.

An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that a positive session was recorded at the PSX to begin the week. The market opened in the green zone and traded with positive sentiments as bulls derived the KSE-100 index to make an intraday high of 497.90 points in hopes of getting the Staff Level Agreement signed between the government and IMF on Monday or Tuesday as stated by the finance minister. The investors remained optimistic throughout the trading session as healthy volumes were witnessed across the main-board while the E&P Sector remained in the limelight.

Sectors contributing to the performance include E&P (up 208.1 points), OMCs (up 24.0 points), Fertilizer (up 14.9 points), Paper & Board (up 4.3 points) and Textile Composite (up 1.6 points).

BR Automobile Assembler Index decreased by 46.28 points or 0.61 percent to close at 7,555.07 points with total turnover of 9.151 million shares.

BR Cement Index inched down by 6.63 points or 0.17 percent to close at 3,999.39 points with 15.116 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index lost 34.46 points or 0.41 percent to close at 8,348.85 points with 15.806 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index fell by 39.86 points or 0.55 percent to close at 7,223.75 points with 7.244 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index surged by 142.47 points or 3.53 percent to close at 4,180.67 points with 83.909 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 4,311.71 points, down 19.25 points or 0.44 percent with 52.670 million shares.

Muhammad Shuja Qureshi at JS Global Capital said that the market opened on a positive note and the KSE-100 index touched a high of 42,292, led by rally in OGDC, PPL, SNGP, and PSO. However, news from the political front eroded most of the gains taking the index to eventually close at 41,857, up 63 points compared to the previous trading session.

The KSE-100 volumes rose to 112 million shares, where HASCOL (up 8.9 percent), TELE (up 2.7 percent), OGDC (up 7.3 percent), WTL (down 0.8 percent) and TPLP (up 1.2 percent) were the volume leaders.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023