KSE-100 Index rangebound: BRIndex100 inert

Pakistan Stock Exchange Thursday witnessed a rangebound session as investors remained cautious due to coronavirus spread and slowing down of economic activities.

BRIndex100 touched intraday high of 3,226.14 and intraday low of 3,176.25 points to close at 3,203.76 points, down 1.16 points or 0.04 percent. Volumes stood at 109.927 million shares.

BRIndex30 gained 66.73 points or 0.42 percent to close at 16,087.63 points with a turnover of 83.471 million shares.

The KSE-100 Index increased by 87.27 points or 0.28 percent to close at 31,329.46 points. Trading activity remained thin as daily volumes on the ready counter decreased to 119.102 million shares as compared to 185.594 million shares traded Wednesday.

Foreign investors remained on the selling side and withdrew $2.248 million from the local capital market. The market capitalization increased by Rs 56 billion to stand at Rs 5.975 trillion. Out of total 341 active scrips, 162 closed in positive and 160 in negative while the value of 19 stocks remained unchanged.

Maple Leaf was the volume leader with 14.792 million shares. It gained Re 0.34 to close at Rs 23.42 followed by Unity Foods that inched up by Re 0.46 to close at Rs 10.75 with 10.897 million shares.

Colgate Palmolive and Philip Morris Pak were the top gainers with Rs 141.00 and Rs 128.95, respectively to close at Rs 2,022.00 and Rs 2,098.90. Indus Dyeing and Sapphire Fiber were the top losers declining by Rs 44.46 and Rs 30.06, respectively to close at Rs 548.47 and Rs 635.55.

BR Automobile Assembler Index gained 26.55 points or 0.58 percent to close at 4,619.24 points with total turnover of 640,990 shares.

BR Cement Index lost 20.97 points or 0.56 percent to close at 3,701.04 points with 34.701 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index decreased by 60.86 points or 0.88 percent to close at 6,866.98 points with 5.985 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index inched up by 27.42 points or 0.66 percent to close at 4,160.08 points with 5.281 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index increased by 27.07 points or 0.88 percent to close at 3,102.18 points with 14.769 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 789.88 points, up 4.54 points or 0.58 percent with 6.442 million shares.

An analyst at Arif Habib Limited that the market traded in a narrow range between intra-day high of plus 205 points and intra-day low of minus 226 points, and closing the session positive 87 points. PIB auction that resulted in normalization of yield curve and declining of yields gave good reasons for investors to come back to equities. However, weakening oil fundamentals kept the investors in limbo on whether to book profit or take new positions. Fertilizer sector maintained the momentum with further support from Cement and E&P sectors. Banking sector, on the other hand, faced selling pressure, bearing the brunt from foreign investors in past couple of sessions. Cement sector managed to post some recovery today and maintained top position in trading volumes with 34.6 million shares, followed by Chemical (12.9 million shares) and Vanaspati (10.9 million shares).

Sectors contributing to the performance include E&P (up 39 points), Tobacco (up 31 points), Pharma (up 25 points), Inv Banks (up 23 points), Power (up 16 points), Banks (down 57 points) and Insurance (down 12 points).

Stocks that contributed positively to the index include PAKT (up 24 points), DAWH (up 24 points), OGDC (up 18 points), FFC (up 17 points) and COLG (up 15 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include MCB (down 23 points), HBL (down 20 points), LUCK (down 11 points), UBL (down 11 points) and EFERT (down 11 points).