KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Tuesday witnessed another rangebound session with low volumes on investor concerns over weakening PKR against the USD and prevailing political situation in the country.
The market opened in positive zone and continued to trade in a consolidated range as investors’ participation remained dull throughout the day.
The benchmark KSE-100 Index hit 42,091.38 points intraday high and 41,862.29 points intraday low level before closing at 42,001.34 points, with a net gain of 139.05 points or 0.33 percent.
Trading activity remained thin as total daily volumes on ready counter decreased to 118.511 million shares as compared to 161.425 million shares traded on Monday while total daily traded value on ready counter declined to Rs 3.873 billion against previous day’s Rs 5.835 billion.
BRIndex100 inched up by 13.32 points or 0.32 percent to close at 4,200.72 points with total daily turnover of 83.637 million shares.
BRIndex30 closed at 15,211.07 points, down 18.85 points or 0.12 percent with total daily trading volumes of 46.907 million shares.
Foreign investors remained net buyers of shares worth $1.206 million. Total market capitalization increased by Rs 14 billion to Rs 6.941 trillion. Out of total 324 active scrips, 151 closed in negative and 145 in positive while the value of 28 stocks remained unchanged.
Hascol Petroleum was the volume leader with 10.214 million shares and gained Rs 0.21 to close at Rs 6.81 followed by K-Electric that closed at Rs 3.21, down Rs 0.01 with 6.926 million shares. Quice Food inched up by Rs 0.66 to close at Rs 4.53 with 5.415 million shares.
Sapphire Textile and Millat Tractors were the top gainers increasing by Rs 41.09 and Rs 29.87 respectively to close at Rs 1,107.49 and Rs 838.44 while Sapphire Fiber and Siemens Pak were the top losers declining by Rs 94.00 and Rs 37.33 respectively to close at Rs 1,166.00 and Rs 696.00.
An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that another rangebound session was witnessed at the PSX. The market opened in positive zone and continued to trade in a consolidated range as investor’s participation remained dull throughout the day due to weakening Pak rupee against the US dollar. However, in the last trading hour value buying was noticed.
Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (up 75.0 points), Automobile Assemblers (up 35.7 points), Cements (up 33.5 points), Power (up 22.0 points) and Textile (up 8.5 points).
BR Automobile Assembler Index increased by 167.27 points or 1.85 percent to close at 9,195.46 points with total turnover of 282,832 shares.
BR Cement Index gained 36.99 points or 0.81 percent to close at 4,591.09 points with 12.249 million shares.
BR Commercial Banks Index inched up by 75.14 points or 0.85 percent to close at 8,911.79 points with 13.987 million shares.
BR Power Generation and Distribution Index added 54.11 points or 0.96 percent to close at 5,662.66 points with 11.986 million shares. BR Oil and Gas Index lost 8.53 points or 0.22 percent to close at 3,849.20 points with 12.981 million shares.
BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 3,778.07 points, down 20.55 points or 0.54 percent with 13.095 million shares. An analyst at Topline Securities said that Pakistan equities closed on a slightly positive note where benchmark KSE-100 Index settled at 42,001 index level, up 0.33 percent. Imran Khan, ex PM’s statement that he is willing to speak to government if they are ready to hold free and fair elections led to marginal index gain. Investors interest mostly witnessed in Banking sector mainly in UBL, MEBL, HBL and MCB.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022