PSX posts modest gains

Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) Wednesday witnessed mixed trend with the benchmark KSE-100 index moving between 49,954.81 points intra-day high and 49,645.24 points intra-day low level. The index closed at 49,827.51 points with a net gain of 42.34 points.
Trading activity remained low as daily trading volumes on the ready counter decreased to 323.016 million shares as compared to 381.346 million shares traded Tuesday. The market capitalisation increased by Rs 45 billion to Rs 9.899 trillion. Out of total 399 active scrips, 212 closed in negative, 168 in positive while the value of 19 stocks remained unchanged. Summit Bank was the volume leader with 22.653 million shares. It gained Rs 0.21 to close at Rs 4.96 followed by Azgard Nine that closed at Rs 14.11, down Rs 0.01 with 21.678 million shares. Engro Polymer lost Rs 0.94 to close at Rs 28.19 with 20.202 million shares.
Nestle Pakistan and Sanofi-Aventis were the top gainers with Rs 200.00 and Rs 106.97, respectively to close at Rs 9,400.00 and Rs 2,246.47. Rafhan Maize and The Searle Co were the top losers with Rs 50.00 and Rs 29.51, respectively to close at Rs 7,300.00 and Rs 638.38.
Nabeel Haroon at JS Global Capital said that volatile session was witnessed at the bourse as the index traded between an intraday high of 169 points and intraday low of 140 points. PSMC and INDU in the automobile sector garnered investors interest as they once again gained to close on their upper circuits on the back of recent promising first quarter of 2017 and nine months of FY17 result announcements. ENGRO (down 0.72 percent) slightly lost value to close in the red zone as the holding company declared its result for first quarter of 2017 in which it posted EPS of Rs 5.42 (in-line with street consensus) along with a cash payout of Rs 5/share. Moreover MCB (down 0.10 percent) in the banking sector declined despite posting better than expected EPS of Rs 5.52 for its first quarter of 2017 along with a cash payout of Rs 4/share. CHCC (down 3.61 percent) and PIOC (down 1.13 percent) were major losers in the cement sector despite announcement of good third quarter of FY17 results.