KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange on Thursday closed in deep red with heavy losses as the investors opted to offload their holdings due to inflationary concerns arising from higher fuel prices. The market opened on a positive note, however failed to sustain this momentum and dropped in negative zone.

The benchmark KSE-100 Index hit 45,716.86 points intra-day high and 45,257.41 points intra-day low level before closing at 45,441.10 points with net loss of 243.70 points or 0.53 percent. Daily trading volumes on ready counter slightly increased to 152.862 million shares as compared to 145.312 million shares traded on Wednesday while total daily traded value increased to Rs 4.778 billion against Wednesday’s Rs 4.135 billion.

BRIndex100 lost 19.53 points or 0.42 percent to close at 4.637.31 points with total daily turnover of 129.650 million shares.

BRIndex30 declined by 250.35 points or 1.39 percent to close at 17,713.22 points with total daily trading volumes of 92.605 million shares.

Foreign investors however turned net buyers of shares worth $339,214. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 41 billion to Rs 7.769 trillion. Out of total 348 active scrips, 229 closed in negative and only 99 in positive while the value of 20 stocks remained unchanged.

WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 16.156 million shares however lost Rs 0.06 to close at Rs 1.96 followed by Hum Network that closed at Rs 7.26, down Rs 0.24 with 14.438 million shares. Telecard Limited decreased by Rs 0.68 to close at Rs 16.10 with 10.467 million shares.

Bhanero Textile and Shield Corp were the top gainers increasing by Rs 87.88 and Rs 20.31 respectively to close at Rs 1259.63 and Rs 291.13 while Allawasaya Textile and Premium Textile were the top losers declining by Rs 138.01 and Rs 58.80 respectively to close at Rs 1702.22 and Rs 725.20.

An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the market remained under pressure due to inflationary concern arising from higher fuel prices. In cement sector, CHCC and KOHC remained in the limelight as it announced financial result in line with the market expectations. Main board activity remained dull. Across the board selling was observed in the last trading hour, which led the market to close in the red zone.

Sectors contributing to the performance include Fertilizer (down 56.0 points), Power (down 42.0 points), Inv Banks (down 36.4 points), Banks (down 22.0 points) and Vanaspati & Allied (down 16.7 points).

BR Automobile Assembler Index gained 38.53 points or 0.43 percent to close at 9,093.77 points with total turnover of 693,902 shares.

BR Cement Index lost 14.06 points or 0.25 percent to close at 5,606.89 points with 4.802 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index fell by 23.61 points or 0.23 percent to close at 10,201.82 points with 16.108 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index declined by 93.51 points or 1.53 percent to close at 6,015.60 points with 13.523 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index inched down by 10.02 points or 0.25 percent to close at 3,949.51 points with 5.436 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 3,645.66 points, down 30.1 points or 0.82 percent with 49.938 million shares.

Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corporation said that stocks closed under pressure amid slump in global crude oil prices and weak global equities on looming Ukraine crises.

He said surge in industrial power tariff and reports on falling trend of textile exports on monthly basis in January 2022 played a catalyst role in bearish close.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022