KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange on Wednesday witnessed mixed trend and closed on negative note due to investor lack of interest on their concerns over economic and political situation in the country. The benchmark KSE-100 index hit 40,895.32 points intra-day high and 40,497.51 points intra-day low level before closing at 40,539.30 points, down 91.34 points or 0.22 percent.

Trading activities remained very low as total daily volumes on ready counter decreased to 142.881 million shares as compared to 201.058 million shares traded on Tuesday while total daily traded value on ready counter declined to Rs 4.334 billion against previous day’s Rs 4.977 billion.

BRIndex100 lost 13.11 points or 0.33 percent to close at 4,014.76 points with total daily turnover of 116.599 million shares.

BRIndex30 decreased by 106.72 points or 0.75 percent to close at 14,079.30 points with total daily trading volumes of 81.569 million shares.

The foreign investors however remained net buyers of shares worth $118,462. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 19 billion to Rs 6.489 trillion. Out of total 325 active scrips, 173 closed in negative and 128 in positive while the value of 24 stocks remained unchanged.

Dewan Motors was the volume leader with 10.850 million shares and gained Rs 0.29 to close at Rs 15.54 followed by Sui Southern Gas Company that inched up by Re 0.72 to close at Rs 11.06 with 10.734 million shares. Al Shaheer (R) closed at Rs 1.07, down Re 0.33 with 9.350 million shares.

Rafhan Maize and Premium Textile were the top gainers increasing by Rs 499.00 and Rs 34.97 respectively to close at Rs 9599.00 and Rs 610.00 while Nestle Pakistan and J.D.W. Sugar were the top losers declining by Rs 100.00 and Rs 14.66 respectively to close at Rs 5750.00 and Rs 405.33.

An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that another mixed session was witnessed at the PSX. The market started in the red but quickly turned green and traded in a constrained range the whole trading day as a result of uncertain economic conditions. Comparatively, main-board volumes dropped while third-tier companies continued to dominate the volume board.

Sectors contributing to the performance include E&P (down 49.4 points), Commercial Banks (down 36.5 points), Power Generation & Distribution (down 17.7 points), Engineering (down 8.6 points), and OMCs (down 70 points).

BR Automobile Assembler Index lost 17.96 points or 0.24 percent to close at 7,562.37 points with total turnover of 11.811 million shares.

BR Cement Index inched down by 12.37 points or 0.33 percent to close at 3,785.71 points with 6.883 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index fell by 32.59 points or 0.4 percent to close at 8,041.68 points with 6.966 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index declined by 44.47 points or 0.7 percent to close at 6,312.02 points with 8.814 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index decreased by 30.63 points or 0.77 percent to close at 3,948.01 points with 31.344 million shares.

BR Tech & Comm Index gained 16.64 points or 0.39 percent to close at 4,290.50 points with 21.133 million shares.

An analyst at Topline Securities said that Pakistan equities closed slight negative where benchmark KSE-100 Index settled at 40,539 level, down 0.22 percent. The market opened on a positive note over lower international commodities prices where market made an intraday high of plus 265 points. However this positivity didn’t sustain at the bourse and profit taking was witnessed in second half of the session where market made an intraday low of minus 132 points.

OGDC, PPL, UBL, MEBL and HUBC were major decliner in the trading session cumulatively dented the Index by 90 points.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023