PSX obtains mixed posture: BRIndex100 little changed

Pakistan Stock Exchange Thursday witnessed a mixed trend as investors remained cautious following reports of higher than expected inflation.

BRIndex100 gained 8.89 points or 0.24 percent to close at 3,745.63 points. BRIndex100 touched intraday high of 3,756.43 and intraday low of 3,716.88 points. Volumes stood at 246.509 million shares.

BRIndex30 lost 78.21 points or 0.4 percent to close at 19,583.21 points with a turnover of 148.267 million shares.

The KSE-100 Index increased by 105.19 points or 0.30 percent to close at 35,758.52 points. Trading activity also remained low as daily volumes decreased to 265.966 million shares as compared to 298.062 million shares traded Wednesday.

The market capitalization increased by Rs 14 billion to Rs 6.933 trillion. Out of total 366 active scrips, 191 closed in negative, 155 in positive while the value of 20 stocks remained unchanged.

WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 45.814 million shares. It gained Re 0.21 to close at Rs 1.70 followed by Pak Elektron that closed at Rs 20.05, down Re 0.01 with 16.716 million shares.

Pak Tobacco and Bata Pak were the top gainers with Rs 107.00 and Rs 78.39, respectively to close at Rs 2,500.00 and Rs 1,646.38. Nestle Pakistan and Philip Morris Pak were the top losers with Rs 229.00 and Rs 129.00, respectively to close at Rs 6,550.00 and Rs 2,451.00.

BR Automobile Assembler Index increased by 113.22 points or 2.19 percent to close at 5,278.14 points with total turnover of 3.062 million shares.

BR Cement Index declined by 65.71 points or 2.0 percent to close at 3,223.60 points with 30.427 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index lost 5.88 points or 0.07 percent to close at 8,236.76 points with 12.482 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index gained 31.42 points or 0.67 percent to close at 4,732.68 points with 5.925 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index inched up by 29.91 points or 0.72 percent to close at 4,165.66 points with 16.988 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 786.18 points, up 9.54 points or 1.23 percent with 68.234 million shares.

An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the market traded in a narrow range between negative 195 points and positive 181pts. Higher than expected inflation caused concern amongst investors about the upcoming monetary policy, where a few days back the market had consensus view of a rate cut. Selling activity was therefore observed in Cement and Steel sectors largely, which have lately seen consistent rally before and after recent announcement of financial results. Consistent with recent trading pattern, Technology sector registered the most trading volume with 68.2 million shares, followed by Cement (30.4 million shares) and Chemical (19.5 million shares).

Sectors contributing to the performance include Fertilizer (up 60 points), O&GMCs (up 29 points), E&P (up 23 points), Tobacco (up 21 points), Autos (up 20 points) and Cement (down 43 points).

Stocks that contributed positively include PAKT (up 29 points), ENGRO (up 28 points), POL (up 26 points), PSO (up 23 points) and HUBC (up 19 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include DGKC (down 15 points), NESTLE (down 11 points), FCCL (down 11 points), DAWH (down 10 points) and LUCK (down 9 points).