KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Wednesday witnessed a positive trend and closed in green zone due to fresh buying in various sectors.

The benchmark KSE-100 Index hit 41,621.71 points intraday high, however closed at 41,358.93 points, up 24.24 points. Trading activity also improved as daily volumes increased to 162.884 million shares as compared to 160.102 million shares traded Tuesday. The daily traded value on ready counter increased to Rs 6.333 billion against previous session’s Rs 5.338 billion.

BRIndex100 gained 14.28 points or 0.35 percent to close at 4,123.30 points with total daily turnover of 133.912 million shares.

BRIndex30 added 71.54 points or 0.49 percent to close at 14,671.87 points with total daily trading volumes of 83.438 million shares.

Foreign investors however remained net sellers of shares worth $1.068 million. Total market capitalization increased by Rs 9 billion to Rs 6.345 trillion. Out of total 335 active scrips, 164 closed in negative and 148 in positive while the value of 23 stocks remained unchanged.

Hascol Petroleum was the volume leader with 14.417 million shares and gained Rs 0.50 to close at Rs 5.57 followed by Telecard Limited that lost Rs 0.28 to close at Rs 6.84 with 7.946 million shares. WorldCall Telecom closed at Rs 1.27, down Rs 0.02 with 7.812 million shares.

Nestle Pakistan and Rafhan Maize were the top gainers increasing by Rs 230.00 and Rs 204.00 respectively to close at Rs 5495.00 and Rs 7715.00 while Unilever Foods and Pak Services were the top losers declining by Rs 1284.03 and Rs 164.43 respectively to close at Rs 19527.55 and Rs 2027.97.

An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that a positive session was recorded at the PSX. The market opened in green zone and traded within a narrow range throughout the day reaching an intraday high of plus 283.97 points as investors await for the government and IMF to reach a SLA. Investors’ involvement remained passive due to the prevailing political uncertainty. Decent volumes were witnessed across the board.

Sectors contributing to the performance include Power Generation & Distribution (up 43.8 points), Commercial Banks (up 41.5 points), E&P (up 22.8 points), Food & Personal Care Products (up 9.2 points) and Engineering (up 9.2 points).

BR Automobile Assembler Index lost 11.81 points or 0.16 percent to close at 7,527.05 points with total turnover of 1.372 million shares.

BR Cement Index inched up by 2.56 points or 0.07 percent to close at 3,883.25 points with 25.184 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index added 40.8 points or 0.49 percent to close at 8,290.76 points with 23.870 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index increased by 116.06 points or 1.66 percent to close at 7,090.85 points with 15.427 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index gained 14.58 points or 0.37 percent to close at 4,005.78 points with 29.674 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 4,249.95 points, down 4.63 points or 0.11 percent with 20.013 million shares.

Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corporation said that stocks closed positive after reports of the COAS meet up with businessmen assuring worst is behind amid overcoming possibility of default and assuring due IMF staff level agreement.

He said reports of IMF confirming lender commitments ahead of renewal of program and SBP governor’s assurance over FX reserves to reach $4.3 billion by next week played a catalyst role in positive close.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023