KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Monday witnessed a mixed trend and closed on slightly positive note as investors remained cautious due to prevailing political uncertainty and delayed IMF program.

The benchmark KSE-100 Index hit 40,819.31 points intraday high and 40,614.69 points intraday low before closing at 40,784.13 points, up 76.37 points or 0.19 percent.

The daily trading volumes on the ready counter slightly increased to 158.084 million shares as compared to 153.441 million shares traded last Friday. The daily traded value on ready counter increased to Rs 5.718 billion against last session’s Rs 4.958 billion.

BRIndex100 inched up by 2.58 points or 0.06 percent to close at 4,054.06 points with daily turnover of 147.488 million shares. BRIndex30 however closed on negative note at 14,294.33 points, down 10.05 points or 0.07 percent.

Foreign investors however remained net buyers of shares worth $1.243 million. The market capitalization declined by Rs 4 billion to Rs 6.316 trillion. Out of total 331 active scrips, 173 closed in negative and 135 in positive while the value of 23 stocks remained unchanged.

WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 39.568 million shares and gained Rs 0.03 to close at Rs 1.33 followed by Hub Power Co that increased by Rs 0.66 to close at Rs 70.61 with 22.665 million shares. TPL Properties closed at Rs 15.32, up Rs 0.66 with 11.954 million shares.

Unilever Foods and Pak Services were the top gainers increasing by Rs 1430.00 and Rs 95.00 respectively to close at Rs 20957.50 and Rs 1965.00 while Bata Pak and Pak Tobacco were the top losers declining by Rs 106.90 and Rs 31.24 respectively to close at Rs 1810.00 and Rs 720.01.

An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the PSX started off the week with mixed sentiments. The market started in the positive territory but continued to trade in both directions as investors chose to remain passive during the trading session due to political uncertainty and the delayed IMF Program. Volumes across the board stayed sluggish as investors await clarity on political and economic issues.

Sectors contributing to the performance include Commercial Banks (up 86.1 points), Miscellaneous (up 50.4 points), Cement (up 17.7 points), Power Generation & Distribution (up 17.7 points), and Automobile Assembler (up 12.4 points).

BR Automobile Assembler Index gained 53.02 points or 0.72 percent to close at 7,420.36 points with total turnover of 1.814 million shares.

BR Cement Index inched up by 15.31 points or 0.4 percent to close at 3,803.66 points with 12.879 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index increased by 82.93 points or 1.04 percent to close at 8,085.63 points with 16.330 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index added 22.79 points or 0.33 percent to close at 6,865.47 points with 28.283 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index lost 35.85 points or 0.9 percent to close at 3,926.20 points with 11.552 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 4,272.22 points, up 6.18 points or 0.14 percent with 46.460 million shares.

Mubashir Anis Naviwala at JS Global Capital said that lackluster session was witnessed at the bourse as market closed at 40,784, losing 76 points compared to the previous close.

Traded volume stood at 158 million shares where WTL (up 2.3 percent), HUBC (up 0.9 percent), TPLP (up 4.5 percent), HBL (up 0.8 percent) and MLCF (up 1.5 percent) were the volume leaders.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023