KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) Friday closed lower on reports that the finance minister has cancelled visit to the US for IMF meeting. The benchmark KSE-100 Index lost 301 points or 0.75 to close at 40,049.65 compared to 40,350.89 points Thursday.
Trading activity remained dull as daily volumes on the ready counter decreased to 135.135 million shares down from 171.360 million shares a day earlier. The daily traded value on the ready counter also declined to Rs 3.2 billion from Rs 5.13 billion.
BRIndex100 closed at 4,075.82 points which was 37.55 points or 0.91 percent lower than previous close of 4,113.37 points. It touched an intraday high of 4,139.33 points and an intraday low of 4,073.11 points with a total volume of 102.659 million shares.
BRIndex30 opened at 14,816.84 points and down by 211.94 points or 1.43 percent to close at 14,604.90 points with 74.849 million shares.
The market capitalization also decreased by Rs 50 billion to Rs 6.094 trillion on Friday compared to Rs 6.144 trillion on Thursday. Out of 301 active scrips, 90 closed in positive and only 188 in negative while the value of 23 stocks remained unchanged.
JS Bank was the volume leader with 26.21 million shares and closed at Rs 4.09 followed by WorldCall Telecom that closed at Rs 1.18 with 13.11 million shares. Silk Bank Limited ranked third with 10.15 million shares and closed at Rs1.03 shares. Sapphire Fiber and Pak Services were the top gainers increasing by Rs 27.88 and Rs 10.47 respectively to close at Rs 1,017.88 and Rs 891.61 while Nestle Pak and Siemens Pak were the top losers declining by Rs 126.87 and Rs 40.00 respectively to close at Rs 5,071.33 and Rs 560.00.
Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said the weekend closed in red. The PSX 100 index opened positive but couldn’t sustain the green belt after the news flash regarding the finance minister postponing the visit to USA for negotiations with IMF ignited the negativity in the market and index stumbled down by 301.2 points to close the week in red. Main board volumes continue to remain sluggish whereas 3rd tier stock led the board.
BR Automobile Assembler Index fell by 19.34 points or 0.26 percent to close at 7,562.08 points with a total turnover of 907,119 shares.
BR Cement Index Closed at 3,889.39 points with a net negative change of 36.31 points or a percentage change of 0.92 and a total turnover of 12,711,641 shares.
BR Commercial Banks Index lost 18.8 points or 0.23 percent to close at 8,181.12 points with a total turnover of 43,112,515 shares.
BR Power Generation and Distribution Index closed at 7,096.30 points, down by 73.51 points or a percentage change of 1.03 with a total turnover of 4,625,805 shares.
BR Oil and Gas Index closed at 3,913.66 points with a net negative change of 64.8 points or a percentage change of 1.63 and a total turnover of 15,169,583.
BR Tech. & Comm. Index also declined by 35.102 points or 0.84 percent to close at 4,130.61 points with a total turnover of 21,759,725.
Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corp said that stocks closed lower on speculations after FM cancelled visit to US and spring meetings with WB & IMF meant for removal of bottlenecks in SLA. Rising political noise amid NA standoff with judiciary, slump in rupee, dismal data on exports, POL sales and cement sales in Mar’23 and concerns for surging inflation played catalytic role in bearish close, he added.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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