KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange on Wednesday witnessed range bound session and after moving both sides finally closed on negative note.

The benchmark KSE-100 index hit 40,541.13 points intra-day high and 40,029.99 points intra-day low level before closing at 40,412.77 points, down 97.60 points or 0.24 percent.

Total daily trading volumes on ready counter increased to 167.399 million shares as compared to 126.319 million shares traded on Tuesday while total daily traded value on ready counter increased to Rs 9.282 billion against previous session’s Rs 5.648 billion.

BRIndex100 lost 11.2 points or 0.28 percent to close at 4,000.91 points with total daily turnover of 144.033 million shares.

BRIndex30 decreased by 55.7 points or 0.4 percent to close at 13,991.08 points with total daily trading volumes of 98.648 million shares.

Total market capitalization declined by Rs 10 billion to Rs 6.262 trillion. Out of total 320 active scrips, 178 closed in negative and 110 in positive while the value of 32 stocks remained unchanged.

WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 20.211 million shares and gained Re 0.02 to close at Rs 1.31 followed by Hub Power Co that inched up by Re 0.08 to close at Rs 70.48 with 7.963 million shares. Maple Leaf lost Re 0.63 to close at Rs 24.22 with 7.500 million shares.

Unilever Foods and Nestle Pakistan were the top gainers increasing by Rs 498.00 and Rs 224.00 respectively to close at Rs 22998.00 and Rs 5464.00 while Premium Textile and Sanofi-Aventis were the top losers declining by Rs 42.82 and Rs 39.00 respectively to close at Rs 528.18 and Rs 681.00.

“Another range bound session was recorded at the PSX,” an analyst at Arif Habib Limited said. The market started in the negative zone and continued to trade in the negative territory for the majority of the trading session, reaching an intraday low of minus 480.64 points as investors chose to remain cautious due to the Supreme Court decision regarding the provincial elections. After the decision was announced the market welcomed much-needed clarity to the political landscape as volumes remained healthy across the board after a slow start to the week.

BR Automobile Assembler Index inched down by 1.89 points or 0.03 percent to close at 7,463.59 points with total turnover of 4.364 million shares.

BR Cement Index declined by 47.84 points or 1.27 percent to close at 3,728.83 points with 12.685 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index lost 15.01 points or 0.18 percent to close at 8,106.07 points with 26.958 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index gained 9.91 points or 0.15 percent to close at 6,836.56 points with 13.694 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index decreased by 38.45 points or 1.01 percent to close at 3,772.46 points with 21.542 million shares.

BR Tech & Comm Index closed at 4,185.89 points, up 11.15 points or 0.27 percent with 36.724 million shares.

An analyst at Topline Securities said that Pakistan equities closed slight negative where the benchmark KSE-100 Index settled at 40,412 level, down 0.24 percent.

Delay in agreement with IMF and no indication that it will be done in next few days led the market to open on a negative note where the market made an intraday low minus 480 points. OGDC, PPL, LUCK, UBL and SYS were the major decliners in the trading session cumulatively dented the Index by 95 points.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023