Stocks witness uptick

KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange on Friday witnessed highly volatile session and after moving in both directions, closed on slight positive note.

The market opened on a bullish note and hit new highest ever levels, however this trend could not continue due to heavy selling pressure that forced the market in deep red zone.

The benchmark KSE-100 Index crossed 80,000 historic level to hit 80,059.87 points intra-day highest ever level during the session, however due to heavy selling pressure dropped into negative zone to hit 78,169.03 points intra-day low, before closing at 78,810.49 points, slightly up by 8.96 points or 0.01 percent.

Total daily trading volumes on ready counter increased to 471.344 million shares as compared to 452.637 million shares traded on Thursday while total daily traded value on the ready counter declined to Rs 20.475 billion against previous session’s Rs 20.675 billion.

BRIndex100 gained 31.1 points or 0.37 percent to close at 8,341.08 points with total daily turnover of 385.648 million shares.

BRIndex30 increased by 528.65 points or 2.04 percent to close at 26,456.69 points with total daily trading volumes of 253.963 million shares.

The market capitalization declined by Rs 12 billion to Rs 10.409 trillion. Out of total 437 active scrips, 237 closed in negative and 138 in positive while the value of 62 stocks remained unchanged.

WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 43.051 million shares however lost Rs 0.04 to close at Rs 1.27 followed by Hum Network that gained Rs 0.60 to close at Rs 11.13 with 41.927 million shares. Pervez Ahmed Co inched up by Rs 0.27 to close at Rs 1.84 with 37.352 million shares.

Pakistan Tobacco Company and Mehmood Textile Mills were the top gainers increasing by Rs 75.60 and Rs 40.83 respectively to close at Rs 1,026.91 and Rs 582.49 while Ismail Industries and Mari Petroleum Company were the top losers declining by Rs 103.78 and Rs 46.27 respectively to close at Rs 1,340.15 and Rs 2,665.47.

An analyst at Topline Securities said that rangebound session was observed at the exchange as the index traded between its intraday high of plus 1,258 points and intraday low of minus 633 points to finally close on a flat note 78,811 level (up by 0.01 percent).

Major positive contribution to the index came from HUBC, UBL, HBL, FFC and PAKT, as they cumulatively contributed plus 630 points to the index. On the other hand MEBL, LUCK, EFERT, ENGRO and SYS lost value to weigh down on the index by minus 398 points.

BR Automobile Assembler Index lost 12.58 points or 0.07 percent to close at 17,161.41 points with total turnover of 5.814 million shares.

BR Cement Index declined by 221.87 points or 2.77 percent to close at 7,793.22 points with 28.444 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index inched down by 13.67 points or 0.06 percent to close at 22,646.86 points with 74.746 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index increased by 1008.21 points or 5.51 percent to close at 19,308.31 points with 45.959 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index decreased by 51.9 points or 0.78 percent to close at 6,580.90 points with 27.459 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index fell 51.83 points or 1.28 percent to close at 4,005.51 points with 108.539 million shares.

Mubashir Anis Naviwala at JS Global Capital said that the PSX started the day positively, but investors soon chose to book profits at higher levels, wiping out early gains and pushing the index into bearish territory.

Fresh buying was observed in the second half at lower levels, particularly in the automobile sector, following news that HUBC (up 8.5 percent) is entering the automobile business.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024