KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Tuesday witnessed a mixed trend as the investors remained cautious and avoided taking fresh positions due to their concerns over political unrest and further devaluation of PKR against the USD.
The benchmark KSE-100 Index hit 44,289.56 points intraday high and 43,782.27 points intraday low before closing at 43,928.08 points, slightly up by 26.03 points or 0.06 percent.
Trading activity remained thin due to investors lack of interest as total daily volumes on ready counter decreased to 115.644 million shares as compared to 170.486 million shares traded on Monday while total daily traded value on ready counter declined to Rs 4.584 billion against previous day’s Rs 5.497 billion.
BRIndex100 gained 7.5 points or 0.17 percent to close at 4,384.40 points with total daily turnover of 105.590 million shares.
BRIndex30 inched up by 3.8 points or 0.02 percent to close at 15,600.98 points with total daily trading volumes of 65.378 million shares.
Foreign investors remained net buyers of shares worth $218,219. Total market capitalization increased by Rs 3 billion to Rs 7.418 trillion. Out of total 302 active scrips, 154 closed in positive and 125 in negative while the value of 23 stocks remained unchanged.
Telecard Limited was the volume leader with 12.908 million shares and gained Rs 0.35 to close at Rs 14.21 followed by TPL Properties that closed at Rs 18.88, down Rs 0.38 with 6.707 million shares. Engro Polymer increased by Rs 5.06 to close at Rs 72.64 with 6.522 million shares.
Blessed Textile and Siemens Pak were the top gainers increasing by Rs 34.50 and Rs 26.97 respectively to close at Rs 494.51 and Rs 622.00 while Sapphire Fiber and Service Industries were the top losers declining by Rs 62.00 and Rs 23.77 respectively to close at Rs 768.00 and Rs 423.25.
An analyst at Topline Securities said that the Pakistan equities closed on a slight positive note where benchmark KSE-100 Index settled at 43,928 level, up 0.06 percent.
A rangebound activity has been witnessed over uncertain political conditions led the market to make an intraday high of 387 points however this positivity couldn’t sustained due to profit taking witnessed in the second half.
EPCL closed at its upper circuit up 7.5 percent. Other major positive contributors were MEBL, EFERT and MCB. On the other hand profit taking was witnessed in Cement Sector where LUCK, DGKC and PIOC closed lower.
BR Automobile Assembler Index gained 36.81 points or 0.4 percent to close at 9,330.22 points with total turnover of 500,785 shares.
BR Cement Index declined by 78.04 points or 1.5 percent to close at 5,111.61 points with 8.475 million shares.
BR Commercial Banks Index added 47.55 points or 0.49 percent to close at 9,765.05 points with 5.027 million shares.
BR Power Generation and Distribution Index inched up by 7.82 points or 0.14 percent to close at 5,722.05 points with 8.957 million shares.
BR Oil and Gas Index lost 19.96 points or 0.54 percent to close at 3,671.24 points with 3.329 million shares.
BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 3,502.49 points, up 4.12 points or 0.12 percent with 30.504 million shares.
An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that another volatile day was observed at PSX as index opened in the negative zone due to political unrest and devaluation of PKR against US dollar.
During the 2nd hour of trading, value buying was observed which led the KSE-100 Index to stay in the positive zone as rally was witnessed in the cements and fertilizer sector. In the last trading hour, across the board profit taking was witnessed.
Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (up 49.9 points), Chemicals (up 41.6 points), Fertilizer (up 30.8 points), Technology (up 10.7 points) and Investment Banks (up 9.5 points).
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022