KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Tuesday witnessed a rangebound session due to investor concerns over further devaluation of PKR against the US dollar and reports of new taxes in upcoming budget that kept them at bay.
The market remained oscillating and closed on a negative note. The benchmark KSE-100 Index hit 41,854.25 points intraday high and 41,522.23 points intraday low before closing at 41,568.41 points, down 8.80 percent or 0.02 percent.
Trading activity remained low due to investor lack of interest as total daily volumes on ready counter decreased to 157.436 million shares as compared to 189.245 million shares traded on Monday while total daily traded value declined to Rs 4.901 billion against previous day’s Rs 6.956 billion.
BRIndex100 lost 7.2 points or 0.17 percent to close at 4,110.85 points with total daily turnover of 129.927 million shares.
BRIndex30 decreased by 122.94 points or 0.83 percent to close at 14,656.20 points with total daily trading volumes of 93.950 million shares.
The foreign investors however remained net buyers of shares worth $473,158. The market capitalization increased by Rs 8 billion to Rs 6.956 trillion. Out of total 329 active scrips, 180 closed in negative and 128 in positive while the value of 21 stocks remained unchanged.
TPL Properties was the volume leader with 17.453 million shares and gained Rs 0.27 to close at Rs 18.82 followed by Unity Foods that declined by Rs 1.00 to close at Rs 20.07 with 15.525 million shares. Pak Refinery closed at Rs 17.05, down Rs 0.41 with 13.410 million shares.
Colgate Palmolive and Blessed Textile were the top gainers increasing by Rs 49.00 and Rs 32.00 respectively to close at Rs 2189.00 and Rs 512.00 while Reliance Cotton and Jubilee Life Ins were the top losers declining by Rs 20.60 and Rs 11.97 respectively to close at Rs 257.50 and Rs 153.03.
An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that a rangebound session was observed at PSX given further devaluation of PKR against USD tagged with concerns of new taxes in the upcoming budget, keeping the investors at bay. The volumes remained dry in the main board although 3rd tier stocks continued positive momentum.
Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (down 21.0 points), Technology (down 20.5 points), Power (down 13.1 points), Vanaspati & Allied (down 11.9 points) and Investment Banks (down 8.7 points).
BR Automobile Assembler Index gained 39.1 points or 0.41 percent to close at 9,644.94 points with total turnover of 581,489 shares.
BR Cement Index lost 3.59 points or 0.09 percent to close at 4,022.97 points with 8.130 million shares.
BR Commercial Banks Index fell by 21.93 points or 0.24 percent to close at 9,179.60 points with 6.860 million shares.
BR Power Generation and Distribution Index inched down by 18.96 points or 0.36 percent to close at 5,178.52 points with 3.003 million shares.
BR Oil and Gas Index added 31.75 points or 0.87 percent to close at 3,662.50 points with 15.564 million shares.
BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 3,223.14 points, down 30.04 points or 0.92 percent with 18.701 million shares.
Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corporation said that stocks closed lower on investor concerns for slump in rupee and surging energy prices.
He said reports of circular debt surging near to 2.5 trillion, and Rs 300 billion new tax measures expected in federal budget FY23 to resume IMF bailout played a catalyst role in bearish close.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022