KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Tuesday witnessed a positive trend and remained in green zone for most part of the session due to fresh buying at attractive, low levels after Monday’s bloodbath.

The benchmark KSE-100 Index increased by 302.25 points or 0.72 percent and closed at 42,373.59 points. The index hit 42,438.20 points intraday high and 42,042.02 points intra-day low level.

Trading activity however remained thin as total daily volumes on ready counter decreased to 139.207 million shares as compared to 244.355 million shares traded on Monday while total daily traded value on ready counter declined to Rs 5.056 billion against previous session’s Rs 6.970 billion.

BRIndex100 gained 34.9 points or 0.83 percent to close at 4,262.97 points with total daily turnover of 115.113 million shares.

BRIndex30 inched up by 61.35 points or 0.39 percent to close at 15,866.89 points with total daily trading volumes of 75.114 million shares.

Foreign investors also remained net buyers of shares worth $552,358. Total market capitalization increased by Rs 30 billion to Rs 6.762 trillion. Out of total 339 active scrips, 188 closed in positive and 123 in negative while the value of 28 stocks remained unchanged.

WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 18.580 million shares and closed at Rs 1.37, up Rs 0.01 followed by Unity Foods that increased by Rs 0.96 to close at Rs 17.56 with 10.135 million shares. K-Electric lost Rs 0.01 to close at Rs 2.59 with 7.495 million shares.

Rafhan Maize and Nestle Pakistan were the top gainers increasing by Rs 295.00 and Rs 50.00 respectively to close at Rs 10380.00 and Rs 5900.00 while Sapphire Fiber and Sapphire Textile were the top losers declining by Rs 89.90 and Rs 84.00 respectively to close at Rs 1109.10 and Rs 1041.00.

“A positive session was witnessed at the PSX,” an analyst at Arif Habib Limited said. The Index was driven by the bulls throughout the day which shows signs of recovery after Monday’s sharp decline. Investors’ sentiments improved as the Government of Pakistan received $500 million from the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. Investor participation remained active throughout the day, with 3rd tier stocks witnessing the most activity as well.

Sectors contributing to the performance include Commercial Banks (up 67.7 points), Technology and Communication (up 60.7 points), Power Generation and Distribution (up 57.5 points), E&P (up 34.2 points), Cement (up 28.5 points).

BR Automobile Assembler Index gained 49.98 points or 0.58 percent to close at 8,704.87 points with total turnover of 6.392 million shares.

BR Cement Index inched up by 31.46 points or 0.75 percent to close at 4,247.84 points with 8.409 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index added 59.45 points or 0.71 percent to close at 8,453.10 points with 14.579 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index surged by 170.25 points or 2.58 percent to close at 6,769.37 points with 15.382 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index closed at 3,847.41 points, up 29.4 points or 0.77 percent with 8.571 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index increased by 64.49 points or 1.34 percent to close at 4,877.35 points with 31.887 million shares.

An analyst at Topline Securities said that Pakistan equities closed positive where the benchmark KSE-100 Index settled at 42,374 index level, up 0.72 percent or 302 points.

Rebound was witnessed in the trading session after Monday’s bearish trend which led the market to remain positive throughout the day as market made an intraday high of 366 points over attractive valuations.

Major positive contributors in the trading session were SYS, HUBC, LUCK, HBL and PSO, which cumulatively added 181 points in KSE-100 Index.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022