KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange on Thursday witnessed range-bound session as the investors remained cautious on their concerns over prevailing economic and political situation in the country.
The benchmark KSE-100 index hit 40,790.35 points intra-day high and 40,539.30 points intra-day low level before closing at 40,716.74 points, up 177.44 points or 0.44 percent.
Trading activities remained very low as total daily volumes on ready counter decreased to 111.790 million shares as compared to 142.881 million shares traded on Wednesday while total daily traded value on ready counter declined to Rs 3.095 billion against previous session’s Rs 4.334 billion.
BRIndex100 gained 18.11 points or 0.45 percent to close at 4,032.87 points with total daily turnover of 89.525 million shares.
BRIndex30 added 76.88 points or 0.55 percent to close at 14,156.18 points with total daily trading volumes of 69.959 million shares.
The foreign investors remained net buyers of shares worth $303,317. Total market capitalization remained almost flat at Rs 6.489 trillion. Out of total 308 active scrips, 161 closed in negative and 124 in positive while the value of 23 stocks remained unchanged.
K-Electric was the volume leader with 18.615 million shares however lost Re 0.07 to close at Rs 2.37 followed by Cnergyico PK that gained Re 0.04 to close at Rs 3.78 with 8.535 million shares. Bankislami Pak closed at Rs 13.31, down Re 0.39 with 7.361 million shares.
Pak Services and Bhanero Textile were the top gainers increasing by Rs 108.79 and Rs 72.00 respectively to close at Rs 1775.00 and Rs 1032.00 while Rafhan Maize and Nestle Pakistan were the top losers declining by Rs 250.00 and Rs 140.00 respectively to close at Rs 9349.00 and Rs 5610.00.
An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that another range-bound session was recorded at the PSX. The benchmark KSE-100 index opened in the green and made an intraday high of plus 251.44 points and traded in the narrow range throughout the trading session. The prevailing political and economic uncertainty kept the investors at bay as volumes in the main-board decline considerably while 3rd tier stocks continued to dominate the volume board.
Sectors contributing to the performance include Fertilizer (up 68.9 points), Miscellaneous (up 55.9 points), E&P (up 54.4 points), Technology & Communication (up 31.7 points), and Inv Banks / Inv Cos / Securities Cos (up 8.6 points).
BR Automobile Assembler Index declined by 92.02 points or 1.22 percent to close at 7,470.35 points with total turnover of 3.363 million shares.
BR Cement Index lost 11.39 points or 0.3 percent to close at 3,774.32 points with 2.557 million shares.
BR Commercial Banks Index inched down by 2.2 points or 0.03 percent to close at 8,039.48 points with 12.648 million shares.
BR Power Generation and Distribution Index gained 20.77 points or 0.33 percent to close at 6,332.79 points with 21.071 million shares.
BR Oil and Gas Index added 27.57 points or 0.7 percent to close at 3,975.58 points with 20.937 million shares.
BR Tech & Comm Index closed at 4,323.89 points, up 33.39 points or 0.78 percent with 13.325 million shares.
Sara Saeed at JS Global Capital said that the KSE-100 index managed to remain in the green zone throughout the day closing in at 40,717, gaining 177 points.
Investor activity remained low as market volume declined to 112 million shares with major contribution coming from KEL (down 2.9 percent), CNERGY (up 1.1 percent), BIPL (down 2.8 percent), SNGP (up 0.9 percent) and WTL (up 0.8 percent).
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023