KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange on Wednesday witnessed mixed trend as the investors remained cautious and avoided to take fresh positions due to their concerns over prevailing economic and political situation in the country.
The benchmark KSE-100 index hit 40,983.65 points intra-day high and 40,594.95 points intra-day low level before closing at 40,758.20 points, down 43.31 points or 0.11 percent.
Due to investor lack of interest, trading activities remained low as total daily volumes on ready counter decreased to 189.373 million shares as compared to 214.346 million shares traded on Tuesday however total daily traded value on ready counter increased to Rs 6.982 billion against previous session’s Rs 6.565 billion.
BRIndex100 lost 0.24 points or 0.01 percent to close at 4,046.85 points with total daily turnover of 168.612 million shares.
BRIndex30 however closed in positive at 14,478.51 points, up 70.49 points or 0.49 percent with total daily trading volumes of 115.352 million shares.
The foreign investors however remained net buyers of shares worth $230,691. Total market capitalization remained flat at previous session’s closing level of Rs 6.491 trillion. Out of total 324 active scrips, 194 closed in negative and 104 in positive while the value of 26 stocks remained unchanged.
K-Electric was the volume leader with 20.463 million however lost Re 0.04 to close at Rs 2.29 followed by PPL that increased by Rs 3.89 to close at Rs 82.12 with 17.774 million shares. SSGC closed at Rs 11.31, up 0.67 with 15.142 million shares.
Al-Abbas Sugar and Millat Tractors were the top gainers increasing by Rs 13.81 and Rs 12.80 respectively to close at Rs 403.81 and Rs 507.09 while Premium Textile and Siemens Pak were the top losers declining by Rs 48.78 and Rs 39.26 respectively to close at Rs 601.72 and Rs 640.74.
An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that a mixed session was witnessed at the PSX. The benchmark KSE-100 index opened in the positive zone and continued to trade within a range through most of the trading session. However, in the last trading hour, investors’ interest got ignited following the press conference held by the Prime Minister and the team as the Finance Minister indicated the much-anticipated solution for the resolution of Gas Circular Debt which boosted activity in E&P stocks. Healthy volumes were observed across the board while both third-tier companies continued to dominate the volume board.
Sectors contributing to the performance include Cement (down 45.2 points), Commercial Banks (down 30.8 points), Technology & Communication (down 27.9 points), Pharmaceuticals (down 19.6 points), and Power Generation & Distribution (down 18.5 points).
BR Automobile Assembler Index gained 58.24 points or 0.79 percent to close at 7,428.94 points with total turnover of 3.444 million shares.
BR Cement Index declined by 61.66 points or 1.62 percent to close at 3,739.28 points with 12.706 million shares.
BR Commercial Banks Index lost 27.25 points or 0.35 percent to close at 7,811.61 points with 7.707 million shares.
BR Power Generation and Distribution Index decreased by 38.6 points or 0.61 percent to close at 6,255.42 points with 25.831 million shares.
BR Oil and Gas Index increased by 87.28 points or 2.13 percent to close at 4,181.18 points with 58.688 million shares.
BR Tech & Comm Index closed at 4,318.15 points, down 34.31 points or 0.79 percent with 14.686 million shares.
Muhammad Shuja Qureshi at JS Global Capital said that range bound activity continued in the market taking the KSE-100 index to close at 40,758, losing 43 points.
Volumes clocked in at 109.8 million shares where KEL (down 1.7 percent), PPL (up 5.0 percent), SSGC (up 6.3 percent), OGDC (up 3.7 percent) and SNGP (up 4.1 percent) were the volume leaders. Finance Minister’s statement regarding settlement of gas sector circular debt resulted in buying interest in PPL and OGDC.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023