KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Friday closed on a negative note as investors opted to book profits on available margins.

The market opened on a positive note but failed to sustain this tone due to selling in various sectors.

The benchmark KSE-100 Index declined by 274.00 points or 0.65 percent and closed at 42,074.91 points on Friday. During the session, the index hit 42,498.19 points intraday high and 42,028.07 points intraday low.

Trading activity also remained thin as total daily volumes on ready counter decreased to 140.118 million shares as compared to 227.848 million shares traded Thursday while total daily traded value on ready counter declined to Rs 5.374 billion against Rs 7.429 billion.

BRIndex100 lost 34.72 points or 0.82 percent to close at 4,188.46 points with total daily turnover of 124.724 million shares. BRIndex30 decreased by 177.3 points or 1.14 percent to close at 15,378.84 points with total daily volumes of 78.599 million shares.

Foreign investors however remained net buyers of shares worth $796,367. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 32 billion to Rs 7.044 trillion. Out of total 347 active scrips, 208 closed in negative and 116 in positive while the value of 23 stocks remained unchanged.

Pak Elektron was the volume leader with 12.025 million shares and closed at previous day’s closing level of Rs 16.29 without any change followed by Unity Foods that lost Rs 0.36 to close at Rs 20.19 with 8.962 million shares. SNGP closed at Rs 39.19, down Rs 0.35 with 5.919 million shares.

Allawasaya Textile and Premium Textile were the top gainers increasing by Rs 152.62 and Rs 35.00 respectively to close at Rs 2,187.62 and Rs 829.99 while Bata Pak and Nestle Pakistan were the top losers declining by Rs 167.44 and Rs 57.50 respectively to close at Rs 2,182.56 and Rs 5,942.50.

An analyst at Topline Securities said that rangebound session was observed at the Exchange as the KSE-100 Index traded between an intraday high of plus 151 points and intraday low of minus 322 points to finally close at 42,075 level, down by 0.65 percent.

Major contribution to the index came from PSO, PAKT, SYS, APL and HMB, as they cumulatively contributed 52 points to the index. On the flip side MCB, OGDC, UBL, PPL and TRG lost value to weigh down on the index by 110 points.

BR Automobile Assembler Index declined by 67.36 points or 0.68 percent to close at 9,784.48 points with total turnover of 644,652 shares.

BR Cement Index plunged by 58.45 points or 1.42 percent to close at 4,069.99 points with 7.596 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index decreased by 69.03 points or 0.78 percent to close at 8,748.94 points with 7.523 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index lost 10.53 points or 0.18 percent to close at 5,695.39 points with 10.712 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index inched down by 18.16 points or 0.46 percent to close at 3,903.01 points with 18.453 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 3,433.57 points, down 21.78 points or 0.63 percent with 18.326 million shares.

An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the market remained rangebound throughout the day as investors opted for profit taking. The benchmark KSE-100 index opened in the positive zone but lackluster activity pulled the index down by 321 points during the session. Volumes remained dry in the main board although healthy volumes were witnessed in the 3rd tier stocks.

Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (down 69.7 points), E&P (down 55.1 points), Cement (down 45.7 points), Engineering (down 21.5 points) and Fertilizer (down 19.6 points).

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022