KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Wednesday witnessed a rangebound session as investors remained cautious and avoided taking fresh positions due to inflationary concern arising from higher fuel prices. The trading session started on a positive note, however failed to sustain this momentum and selling pressure in various sectors pushed it in negative zone. Due to investor lack of interest, trading activity also remained very thin while daily traded value dropped at 20 month lowest level.
The benchmark KSE-100 Index hit 45,904.69 points intraday high and 45,603.65 points intraday low level before closing at 45,684.80 points, with a net loss of 46.90 points or 0.10 percent. Trading activities remained very low as daily volumes on ready counter decreased to 145.312 million shares as compared to 274.577 million shares traded Tuesday. The daily traded value on the ready counter drastically declined and stood at 20 month low level of Rs 4.135 billion as compared to previous day’s Rs 6.756 billion. Last lowest daily traded value of Rs 3.3 billion was seen on June 19, 2020.
BRIndex100 lost 7.03 points or 0.15 percent to close at 4,656.84 points with total daily turnover of 130.979 million shares. BRIndex30 decreased by 78.48 points or 0.43 percent to close at 17,963.57 points with total daily trading volumes of 92.633 million shares.
Foreign investors also remained net sellers of shares worth $187,325. The market capitalization declined by Rs 7 billion to Rs 7.810 trillion. Out of total 339 active scrips, 181 closed in negative and 135 in positive while the value of 23 stocks remained unchanged.
K-Electric was the volume leader with 23.646 million shares and gained Rs 0.06 to close at Rs 3.59 followed by WorldCall Telecom that gained Rs 0.06 to close at Rs 2.02 with 17.057 million shares. Faysal Bank inched up by Rs 0.10 to close at Rs 27.00 with 10.139 million shares.
Nestle Pakistan and Premium Textile were the top gainers increasing by Rs 99.90 and Rs 54.01 respectively to close at Rs 5700.00 and Rs 784.00 while Rafhan Maize and Allawasaya Textile were the top losers declining by Rs 505.00 and Rs 149.20 respectively to close at Rs 9900.00 and Rs 1840.23.
An analyst at Topline Securities said that the Pakistan equities closed on a slight negative note where the benchmark KSE-100 Index settled at 45,684 level, down 0.10 percent.
Lackluster volumes witnessed at PSX on Wednesday as investors expecting inflationary pressure due to increase in local petroleum prices as government increased prices of all petroleum products by Rs 10 to Rs 12 to pass on the impact of higher international oil prices.
BR Automobile Assembler Index gained 41.56 points or 0.46 percent to close at 9,055.24 points with total turnover of 824,421 shares.
BR Cement Index decreased by 38.78 points or 0.69 percent to close at 5,620.95 points with 4.945 million shares.
BR Commercial Banks Index lost 27.32 points or 0.27 percent to close at 10,225.43 points with 20.273 million shares.
BR Power Generation and Distribution Index inched up by 35.2 points or 0.58 percent to close at 6,109.11 points with 28.850 million shares.
BR Oil and Gas Index fell by 11.19 points or 0.28 percent to close at 3,959.53 points with 3.516 million shares. BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 3,675.76 points, down 10.31 points 0.28 percent with 39.002 million shares.
An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the market witnessed another rangebound session due to inflationary concern arising from higher fuel prices. The KSE-100 Index opened on positive note at the start of the trading session but closed with negative 46 points.
In cement sector, PIOC remained under pressure despite of financial result in line with market expectations. Main board activity remained dull. In last trading hour, Investors opted for profit-taking which led the market to close in the red zone.
Sectors contributing to the performance include Commercial Banks (down 28.1 points), Cement (down 28.1 points), OMC (down 12.4 points), E&P (down 6.0 points) and Sugar (down 4.5 points).
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022