KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Wednesday recorded historic volumes of one billion shares on regular market, highest after 16 years driven by a handful of penny stocks, analysts said.

PSX recorded one billion volume of shares traded after 16 years, but very concentrated in terms of number of stocks contributed to the huge volume, they added.

However, the PSX witnessed a mixed trend during the day’s trade.

BRIndex100 closed at 4,997.62 points, up 7.02 points or 0.14 percent. BRIndex100 hit intraday high of 5,025.32 and intraday low of 4,950.73 points. Volumes stood at 930.584 million shares.

BRIndex30 inched up by 68.85 points or 0.27 percent to close at 25,822.30 points with total daily turnover of 725.694 million shares. The KSE-100 Index lost 30.48 points or 0.07 percent and closed at 46,644.29 points. Trading activity extremely improved as daily volumes on the ready counter increased to 1,011.910 million, highest after 16 years as compared to 664.033 million shares traded on Tuesday.

Foreign investors remained net sellers of shares worth $1.847 million. The market capitalization declined by Rs 14 billion to Rs 8.399 trillion. Out of total 412 active scrips, 223 closed in negative and 173 in positive while the value of 16 stocks remained unchanged.

WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 370.396 million shares and gained Rs 0.42 to close at Rs 1.68 followed by K-Electric that inched up by Rs 0.09 to close at Rs 4.54 with 106.876 million shares. Lucky Cement and Pak Tobacco were the top gainers increasing by Rs 25.11 and Rs 24.00 respectively to close at Rs 767.24 and Rs 1599.00 while Rafhan Maize and Mari Petroleum were the top losers declining by Rs 327.43 and Rs 37.24 respectively to close at Rs 10,200.00 and Rs 1654.92.

BR Automobile Assembler Index decreased by 50.06 points or 0.58 percent to close at 8,637.03 points with total turnover of 5.117 million shares.

BR Cement Index surged by 285.03 points or 4.24 percent to close at 7,002.69 points with 90.687 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index lost 40.91 points or 0.44 percent to close at 9,202.66 points with 38.783 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index gained 0.78 points or 0.01 percent to close at 6,122.67 points with 112.169 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index declined by 51.52 points or 1.17 percent to close at 4,367.19 points with 27.015 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 3,396.06 points, down 35.4 points or 1.03 percent with 490.829 million shares.

Senior analyst Khurram Schehzad said that the PSX recorded historic volume of one billion shares traded after 16 years, but very concentrated in terms of number of stocks contributed to the huge volume. WTL alone drove 37 percent of the total daily volumes, while 51 percent of this historic volume has been driven by only three, and mostly penny, stocks.

One is WTL (37 percent), 2nd is KEL (10 percent) and the 3rd stock contributing most to these volumes was Telecard, he said.

An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the market made another feat with achieving trading volume of one billion shares in the regular market, whereby WTL contributed the most with 369 million shares, however, other stocks also maintained the average trading volume of 600 million shares.

Profit-booking continues unabated, particularly in E&P sector that regressed despite stable international crude oil prices. Cement sector performed on the back of better results announced by CHCC, which firmed investors for similar results for the peers. Banks, E&P and Engineering (Steel) sector saw attrition, whereas Cement sector held firm ground.

Sectors contributing to the performance include E&P (down 92 points), Banks (down 50 points), Technology (down 33 points), Fertilizer (down 20 points) and Engineering (down 11 points).

Stocks that contributed positively to the index include LUCK (up 76 points), FCCL (up 29 points), CHCC (up 25 points), PIOC (up 25 points) and KOHC (up 21 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include OGDC (down 34 points), MARI (down 23 points), SYS (down 22 points), PPL (down 19 points) and BAHL (down 16 points).

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021