KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Tuesday witnessed a mixed trend with low volumes as investors remained cautious due to spreading coronavirus cases in the country.

BRIndex100 inched up by 1.88 points or 0.04 percent to close at 4,834.29 points. During the session, the BRIndex-100 hit intraday high of 4,839.91 and an intraday low of 4,815.25 points. Volumes stood at 449.540 million shares.

BRIndex30 closed at 25,609.52 points, down 142.06 points or 0.55 percent with total daily turnover of 233.036 million shares.

The KSE-100 Index gained 70.52 points or 0.16 percent and once again crossed 45,000 psychological level to close at 45,048.57 points. Trading activity however remained low as daily volumes on ready counter decreased to 473.433 million shares as compared to 503.526 million shares traded on Monday.

Foreign investors also remained net sellers of shares worth $1.516 million. Total market capitalization increased by Rs 17 billion to Rs 7.885 trillion. Out of total 398 active scrips, 201 closed in negative and 174 in positive while the value of 23 stocks remained unchanged.

F. Nat. Equities was the volume leader with 106.556 million shares however lost Rs 1.00 to close at Rs 11.93 followed by Unity Foods that gained Rs 0.26 to close at Rs 31.09 with 29.889 million shares. AKD Capital and Nestle Pakistan were the top gainers increasing by Rs 30.84 and Rs 30.00 respectively to close at Rs 442.15 and Rs 5850.00 while Rafhan Maize and Gatron Industries were the top losers declining by Rs 394.50 and Rs 41.54 respectively to close at Rs 9205.50 and Rs 512.42.

BR Automobile Assembler Index increased by 96.01 points or 1.1 percent to close at 8,861.85 points with total turnover of 4.703 million shares.

BR Cement Index lost 8.23 points or 0.11 percent to close at 7,265.32 points with 13.508 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index gained 79.51 points or 0.94 percent to close at 8,568.34 points with 17.881 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index decreased by 33.18 points or 0.59 percent to close at 5,551.02 points with 7.745 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index inched up by 6.4 points or 0.16 percent to close at 3,950.27 points with 16.869 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 3,884.91 points, down 55.38 points or 1.41 percent with 123.018 million shares.

Danish Ladhani at JS Global Capital said that the KSE-100 Index closed at 45,048 level, a gain of 70 points. During the session, the index traded between an intraday high and low of plus 155 and minus 198 points. Total volume traded for the day was recorded at 473 million shares where top contributors were FNEL (down 7.7 percent), UNITY (up 0.8 percent), BYCO (up 1.2 percent), TRG (down 3.7 percent), WTL (down 5.9 percent) and HUMNL (up 2.0 percent).

Volatility remained in the market amid profit taking at the bourse. HTL in the OMCs has decided to enter new business opportunities in the plastic packaging industry by venturing into the production of plastic products for external customers and third parties.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021