KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Wednesday witnessed a rangebound session due to continuous depreciation of the PKR against the USD.
The market opened on a positive note, however failed to continue the momentum as investors’ participation remained sluggish that led the index to close in red zone, experts said.
The benchmark KSE-100 Index hit 42,064.56 points intraday high and 41,705.58 points intraday low before closing at 41,766.05 points, down 94.31 points or 0.23 percent.
Trading activity remained thin as total daily trading volumes declined to 92.938 million shares as compared to 187.263 million shares traded on Tuesday while total daily traded value on ready counter declined to Rs 3.156 billion against previous day’s Rs 4.017 billion.
BRIndex100 lost 15.26 points or 0.36 percent to close at 4,174.09 points with total daily turnover of 74.734 million shares.
BRIndex30 decreased by 107.52 points or 0.71 percent to close at 15,034.85 points with total daily trading volumes of 47.807 million shares.
Foreign investors however remained net buyers of shares worth $133,365. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 12 billion to Rs 6.931 trillion. Out of total 337 active scrips, 181 closed in negative and 130 in positive while the value of 26 stocks remained unchanged.
Hascol Petroleum was the volume leader with 8.625 million shares however lost Rs 0.15 to close at Rs 6.94 followed by Pak Refinery that closed at Rs 17.95, up Rs 0.02 with 6.239 million shares. Cnergyico PK gained Rs 0.07 to close at Rs 5.19 with 4.819 million shares.
Premium Textile and Colgate Palmolive were the top gainers increasing by Rs 48.90 and Rs 48.67 respectively to close at Rs 892.90 and Rs 2,385.00 while Sapphire Textile and Reliance Cotton were the top losers declining by Rs 79.05 and Rs 35.00 respectively to close at Rs 1,110.50 and Rs 460.00.
An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the PSX observed a rangebound session due to continuous depreciation of PKR against US dollar. The benchmark KSE-100 Index despite opening in the positive zone failed to continue the momentum as investors’ participation remained sluggish that led the index to close in the red zone. Volumes continued to decline in the main board although decent volumes were observed in the 3rd tier stocks.
Sectors contributing to the performance include Fertilizer (down 32.8 points), Banks (down 21.3 points), Technology (down 17.5 points), Cement (down 16.8 points) and E&P (down 16.3 points).
BR Automobile Assembler Index decreased by 29.31 points or 0.32 percent to close at 9,051.41 points with total turnover of 341,367 shares.
BR Cement Index declined by 26 points or 0.58 percent to close at 4,450.78 points with 6.974 million shares.
BR Commercial Banks Index fell by 22 points or 0.25 percent to close at 8,851.10 points with 4.647 million shares.
BR Power Generation and Distribution Index inched down by 2.32 points or 0.04 percent to close at 5,581.00 points with 8.857 million shares.
BR Oil and Gas Index lost 0.42 points or 0.01 percent to close at 3,862.09 points with 15.982 million shares.
BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 3,693.38 points, down 24.07 points or 0.65 percent with 9.340 million shares.
An analyst at Topline Securities said that lackluster activity was observed at the exchange as the KSE-100 index traded between its intraday high of plus 205 points and intraday low minus 94 points to finally settle at 41,766 level, down by 0.23 percent.
Major contribution to the index came from MEBL, PSO, COLG, DAWH and SHEL, as they cumulatively contributed plus 44 points to the index. On the flip side EFERT, ENGRO, HMB, LUCK and SYS lost value to weigh down on the index by negative 72 points.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022