KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange on Wednesday opened on a strong positive note however could not sustain this momentum and closed in red due to heavy selling in various sectors. BRIndex100 lost 8.02 points or 0.19 percent to close at 4,222.02 points. BRIndex-100 hit intraday high of 4,287.29 and intraday low of 4,212.59 points. Volumes stood at 527.764 million shares.
BRIndex30 decreased by 76.45 points or 0.35 percent to close at 21,742.85 points with a turnover of 363.952 million shares.
The KSE-100 Index declined by 85.97 points or 0.21 percent to close at 40,473.18 points. Daily trading volumes on the ready counter stood at 591.172 million shares as compared to 600.041 million shares traded Tuesday.
Foreign investors however remained net buyers of shares worth $1.352 million. The market capitalization declined by Rs 34 billion to Rs 7.457 trillion. Out of total 405 active scrips, 286 closed in negative, only 99 in positive while the value of 20 stocks remained unchanged.
Hascol Petroleum was the volume leader with 88.368 million shares. However, it lost Re 0.48 to close at Rs 15.51 followed by TRG Pak that increased by Rs 1.31 to close at Rs 49.28 with 36.326 million shares. Rafhan Maize and Sanofi-Aventis were the top gainers with Rs 225.00 and Rs 58.42, respectively to close at Rs 8,175.00 and Rs 872.42. Philip Morris Pak and Pak Tobacco were the top losers with Rs 74.90 and Rs 39.99, respectively to close at Rs 1,700.00 and Rs 1,660.01.
BR Automobile Assembler Index declined by 114.01 points or 1.41 percent to close at 7,951.16 points with total turnover of 7.512 million shares.
BR Cement Index decreased by 85.62 points or 1.54 percent to close at 5,491.06 points with 62.388 million shares.
BR Commercial Banks Index gained 16.63 points or 0.2 percent to close at 8,269.42 points with 33.448 million shares.
BR Power Generation and Distribution Index increased by 92.98 points or 1.79 percent to close at 5,275.63 points with 50.848 million shares.
BR Oil and Gas Index lost 33.18 points or 0.81 percent to close at 4,054.63 points with 117.587 million shares.
BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 1,603.97 points, up 4.64 points or 0.29 percent with 69.794 million shares.
An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the market added a total of 559 points during the session posting a new recent high of 41,119 points however selling pressure brought the index below the opening level and closed the session negative 86 points.
E&P, Banks, Fertilizer sector contributed to early rise in the Index. Fertilizer sector felt the heat of SC's decision on GIDC, which is scheduled to be announced on Thursday. Similarly, HASCOL saw active trading with almost hitting upper circuit breaker and then lower circuit upon notice of grant of permanent license as an OMC in place of existing provisional one. Index level above 41,000 points largely prompted profit booking just before the weekend.
O&GMCs topped the volumes with 105.1 million shares, followed by Cement (72.8 million shares) and Technology (69.7 million shares).
Sectors contributing to the performance include Cement (down 57 points), O&GMCs (down 33 points), E&P (down 29 points), Pharma (down 19 points) and Inv Banks (down 18 points).
Stocks that contributed positively to the index include FFC (up 60 points), HUBC (up 43 points), NBP (up 24 points), UBL (up 19 points) and TRG (up 13 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include PPL (down 16 points), MCB (down 16 points), LUCK (down 16 points), DAWH (down 14 points) and PSO (down 14 points).
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020