KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Monday opened on a positive note and remained in green for most part of the day however, profit-taking in last two hours eroded all intraday gains and forced the market to close in red zone.

The benchmark KSE-100 Index once again crossed 46,000 crucial level to hit 46,139.54 points intraday high. The benchmark dropped at 45,799.17 points intraday low level and closed at 45,841.25 points, down 68.40 points or 0.15 percent. Trading activity remained thin as daily volumes on ready counter decreased to 150.102 million shares as compared to 192.479 million shares traded on previous session while total daily traded value on ready counter declined to Rs 6.251 billion against previous session’s Rs 8.892 billion.

BRIndex100 lost 23.92 points or 0.51 percent to close at 4,703.42 points with total daily turnover of 126.443 million shares.

BRIndex30 declined by 386.46 points or 2.1 percent to close at 18,024.62 points with total daily trading volumes of 74.677 million shares.

Foreign investors remained net buyers of shares worth $920,392. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 18 billion to Rs 7.833 trillion. Out of total 362 active scrips, 227 closed in negative and 114 in positive while the value of 21 stocks remained unchanged.

Pak Elektron was the volume leader with 8.292 million shares however declined by Rs 1.80 and closed at its lower circuit of Rs 22.26 followed by Cnergyico PK that lost Rs 0.12 to close at Rs 6.12 with 7.870 million shares.

Sapphire Textile and Premier Sugar were the top gainers increasing by Rs 64.50 and Rs 37.50 respectively to close at Rs 1109.00 and Rs 537.50 while Unilever Foods and Sanofi-Aventis were the top losers declining by Rs 960.00 and Rs 31.00 respectively to close at Rs 21000.00 and Rs 850.00.

Waqar Iqbal at JS Global Capital said that the market witnessed a strong start with initial buying in oil stocks. The benchmark KSE-100 index however, failed to sustain the 46,000 points barrier and closed at 45,841, losing 68 points. Major volume leaders were PAEL, CNERGY, HUMNL, OGDC, WTL and TELE.

BR Automobile Assembler Index lost 13.01 points or 0.15 percent to close at 8,740.09 points with total turnover of 886,122 shares.

BR Cement Index declined by 60.08 points or 1.04 percent to close at 5,710.32 points with 6.850 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index fell by 32.15 points or 0.31 percent to close at 10,270.63 points with 9.963 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index decreased by 65.57 points or 1.07 percent to close at 6,055.48 points with 5.999 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index gained 32.34 points or 0.81 percent to close at 4,033.37 points with 18.217 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 3,763.32 points, down 49.2 points 1.29 percent with 31.697 million shares.

Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corporation said that stocks closed lower amid thin trade on investor concerns for dismal data on $28.8 billion trade deficit for July-January 2022 widening by 92 percent on year-on-year basis and reports of falling cement sales amid government cut in development budgets for tranche release under IMF EFF program.

He said political noise and likely surge in power tariff on surging circular debt played a catalyst role in negative close.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022