KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Thursday witnessed a mixed trend and after moving both ways, closed on a positive note. The benchmark KSE-100 Index hit 40,827.86 points intraday high and 40,451.49 points intraday low before closing at 40,733.51 points, up 113.56 points or 0.28 percent.

Trading activity remained low as daily volumes on ready counter decreased to 124.087 million shares as compared to 130.973 million shares traded Wednesday. However, daily traded value on ready counter increased to Rs 6.120 billion against Wednesday’s Rs 5.877 billion.

BRIndex100 gained 16.11 points or 0.4 percent to close at 4,060.58 points with total daily turnover of 111.898 million shares.

BRIndex30 inched up by 18.06 points or 0.13 percent to close at 14,455.10 points with total daily trading volumes of 81.537 million shares.

Foreign investors remained net buyers of shares worth $874,259. The market capitalization declined by Rs 01 billion to Rs 6.389 trillion. Out of total 328 active scrips, 152 closed in positive and 146 in negative while the value of 30 stocks remained unchanged.

WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 20.606 million shares and gained Rs 0.03 to close at Rs 1.17 followed by PPL that declined by Rs 1.28 to close at Rs 75.35 with 12.289 million shares. Dewan Motors closed at Rs 14.48, up Rs 0.37 with 6.197 million shares.

Nestle Pakistan and Mari Petroleum were the top gainers increasing by Rs 94.99 and Rs 32.63 respectively to close at Rs 5300.00 and Rs 1454.35 while Pak Services and Siemens Pak were the top losers declining by Rs 157.13 and Rs 47.64 respectively to close at Rs 1938.00 and Rs 587.58.

“Another mixed session was observed at the PSX,” an analyst at Arif Habib Limited said. Owing to the ongoing political instability, the market opened in the negative zone, but fluctuated both ways as the index reached an intraday high of plus 206.72 points and finished in the green as investors remained optimistic about the 9th tranche of the IMF deal. Volumes remained steady across the board.

Sectors contributing to the performance include Fertilizer (up 49.1 points), Power Generation & Distribution (up 33.1 points), Technology & Communication (up 32.6 points), Cement (up 31.7 points), and Pharmaceuticals (up 19.9 points).

BR Automobile Assembler Index gained 38.19 points or 0.52 percent to close at 7,343.69 points with total turnover of 6.428 million shares.

BR Cement Index increased by 40.83 points or 1.12 percent to close at 3,692.84 points with 8.924 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index lost 6.16 points or 0.08 percent to close at 8,031.93 points with 7.783 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index added 46.4 points or 0.71 percent to close at 6,593.82 points with 6.903 million shares. BR Oil and Gas Index inched up by 2.88 points or 0.07 percent to close at 4,054.61 points with 22.224 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 4,142.57 points, up 31.04 points or 0.75 percent with 27.487 million shares.

Mubashir Anis Naviwala at JS Global Capital said that the bourse witnessed a volatile session with the index eventually closing at 40,734, gaining 114 points.

Traded volume stood at 124 million shares where WTL (up 2.6 percent), PPL (down 1.7 percent), DFML (up 2.6 percent), GGL (up 5.4 percent) and OGDC (down 0.3 percent) were the volume leaders.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023