KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Thursday opened on a bleak note and stayed in the red zone throughout the day, however sharp recovery was witnessed due to across-the-board buying at the fag end as short-sellers jumped in to square-off positions. The benchmark KSE-100 Index hit 44,274.31 points intraday low level, however closed at 44,825.97 points, down 7.46 points or 0.02 percent. Daily trading volumes on ready counter increased to 254.207 million shares as compared to 236.934 million shares traded Wednesday.

BRIndex100 gained 4.46 points or 0.1 percent to close at 4,585.75 points with total daily turnover of 228.392 million shares.

BRIndex30 lost 166.9 points or 0.94 percent to close at 17,544.67 points with total daily trading volumes of 171.694 million shares.

Foreign investors also remained net sellers of shares worth $240,527. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 3 billion to Rs 7.700 trillion. Out of total 348 active scrips, 169 closed in positive and 158 in negative while the value of 21 stocks remained unchanged.

WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 27.947 million shares and gained Rs 0.02 to close at Rs 2.18 followed by Cnergyico PK that closed at Rs 6.40, down Rs 0.11 with 18.841 million shares.

Sapphire Fiber and Siemens Pak were the top gainers increasing by Rs 63.00 and Rs 17.16 respectively to close at Rs 913.00 and Rs 638.16 while Nestle Pakistan and Sapphire Textile were the top losers declining by Rs 100.00 and Rs 84.00 respectively to close at Rs 5400.00 and Rs 1040.00.

An analyst at Arif Habib Limited that bearish momentum was witnessed due to alarming Covid-19 cases and higher international oil prices. The market opened on a bleak note and stayed in the red zone throughout the day. The main board activity remained gloomy.

On the flip-side, activity continued to remain side-ways as market witnessed hefty volumes in the 3rd tier stocks. In the last trading hour, across the board buying was observed as short-sellers jumped in to square-off positions.

Sectors contributing to the performance include Technology (down 83.1 points), Fertilizer (down 22.8 points), Inv. Banks (down 17.8 points), Commercial Banks (down 9.5 points) and Automobile Assembler (down 6.5 points).

BR Automobile Assembler Index lost 30.27 points or 0.35 percent to close at 8,530.04 points with total turnover of 1.487 million shares.

BR Cement Index increased by 88.51 points or 1.6 percent to close at 5,614.13 points with 10.146 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index inched down by 5.34 points or 0.05 percent to close at 10,051.34 points with 14.314 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index gained 52.96 points or 0.89 percent to close at 5,987.83 points with 19.246 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index added 17.3 points or 0.45 percent to close at 3,887.02 points with 13.271 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index decreased by 67.36 points or 1.74 percent to close at 3,797.16 points with 73.485 million shares.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022