KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange on Tuesday remained volatile due to investors concern over increasing coronavirus cases.

The benchmark KSE-100 index closed at 45,881.13, down 6.50 points or 0.01 percent. Trading activities remained thin as daily volumes on ready counter decreased to 339.102 million shares as compared to 356.967 million shares traded on Monday.

BRIndex100 gained 11.98 points or 0.25 percent to close at 4,744.69 points with total daily turnover of 251.278 million shares.

BRIndex30 increased by 141.75 points or 0.72 percent to close at 19,785.76 points with total daily trading volumes of 193.040 million shares.

The foreign investors remained net sellers of shares worth $798,287. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 4 billion to Rs 7.850 trillion. Out of total 363 active scrips, 183 closed in positive and 159 in negative while the value of 21 stocks remained unchanged.

WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 44.675 million shares and gained Re 0.11 to close at Rs 2.43 followed by Hascol Petroleum that closed at Rs 6.73, up Re 0.29 with 33.122 million shares.

Nestle Pakistan and Goodluck Industries were the top gainers increasing by Rs 140.00 and Rs 36.54 respectively to close at Rs 5690.00 and Rs 523.79 while Sapphire Fiber and Sapphire Textile were the top losers declining by Rs 65.00 and Rs 33.80 respectively to close at Rs 851.00 and Rs 860.20.

An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said the market remained volatile due to rapid surge in the Covid-19 cases as within the past 10 days positivity rate has jumped from 1.08 percent to 3.66 percent showing an increase of 338.9 percent since the start of the new year.

Profit-taking was witnessed across the board. However, rally in banking sector was observed due to the expectation of foreign inflows. Activity continued to remain side-ways as market witnessed hefty volumes in the third tier stocks.

Sectors contributing to the performance include Cement (down 31 points), E&P (down 28 points), Technology and Communication (down 20 points), Power (down 10 points) and Tobacco (down 10 points).

BR Automobile Assembler Index gained 38.99 points or 0.45 percent to close at 8,629.57 points with total turnover of 6.902 million shares.

BR Cement Index decreased by 44.6 points or 0.76 percent to close at 5,852.95 points with 5.874 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index inched up by 73.97 points or 0.73 percent to close at 10,175.29 points with 29.286 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index lost 11.84 points or 0.2 percent to close at 6,042.25 points with 11.461 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index fell by 15.69 points or 0.41 percent to close at 3,848.84 points with 37.665 million shares.

BR Tech & Comm Index closed at 4,241.18 points, down 13.88 points or 0.33 percent with 110.971 million shares.

An analyst at Topline Securities said volatile activity was observed at the exchange as the index traded between its intraday high of 170 points and intraday low of negative 363 points, to finally close at 45,881.

Major contribution to the index came from HBL, MCB, TRG, UBL and EFERT, as they cumulatively contributed 104 points to the index, on the other hand SYS, ENGRO, LUCK, HUBC and OGDC lost value to weigh down on the index by negative110 points.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022