KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Monday witnessed a mixed trend and after moving both ways, closed on slightly positive note due to buying in some stocks.

The benchmark KSE-100 Index hit 40,066.33 points intraday high and 39,840.72 points intraday low before closing at 40,000.37 points, up 58.32 points or 0.15 percent.

Trading activity also improved as total daily volumes on ready counter increased to 64.511 million shares as compared to 46.728 million shares traded on last Friday while total daily traded value on ready counter increased to Rs 2.501 billion against previous session’s Rs 1.294 billion. Foreign investors remained net buyers of shares worth $103,189.

BRIndex100 gained 7.4 points or 0.18 percent to close at 4,047.35 points with total daily turnover of 58.466 million shares.

BRIndex30 lost 8.36 points or 0.06 percent to close at 14,405.09 points with total daily trading volumes of 33.216 million shares.

WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 5.040 million shares and closed on previous session’s closing level of Rs 1.20 without any change followed by Meezan Bank that gained Rs 0.13 to close at Rs 92.75 with 4.762 million shares. Telecard Limited inched up by Rs 0.23 to close at Rs 7.29 with 4.363 million shares.

Nestle Pakistan and Sapphire Textile were the top gainers increasing by Rs 54.95 and Rs 49.39 respectively to close at Rs 5155.05 and Rs 1099.10 while Rafhan Maize and Ismail Industries were the top losers declining by Rs 412.50 and Rs 24.90 respectively to close at Rs 7557.50 and Rs 455.01.

An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the business week started off with a mixed session at the PSX. The benchmark KSE-100 Index started in the red, but trends gradually shifted as the index traded both ways, as delayed review of the of the IMF’s Extended Fund Facility and ongoing political uncertainty kept investors at bay, resulting in a drop in volumes across the board.

Sectors contributing to the performance include Technology & Communication (up 48.3 points), Fertilizer (up 32.5 points), Commercial Banks (up 6.0 points), Cement (up 6.0 points) and Chemical (up 3.9 points).

BR Automobile Assembler Index gained 6.91 points or 0.09 percent to close at 7,470.49 points with total turnover of 527,252 shares.

BR Cement Index inched up by 10.29 points or 0.27 percent to close at 3,829.02 points with 8.427 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index added 7.7 points or 0.09 percent to close at 8,181.48 points with 9.133 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index fell by 28.57 points or 0.41 percent to close at 6,992.91 points with 3.309 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index lost 6.83 points or 0.18 percent to close at 3,872.75 points with 5.168 million shares. BR Tech. & Comm. Index increased by 45.19 points or 1.1 percent to close at 4,105.99 points with 13.688 million shares.

Muhammad Shuja Qureshi at JS Global Capital said that lack of interest restricted intraday gains taking the benchmark index to settle at 40,000, up 58 points compared to the previous session. The market turnover increased to 65 million shares. However, bulk of the turnover was restricted to only a few stocks, while the broader market remained lackluster.

WTL (zero percent), MEBL (up 0.1 percent), TELE (up 3.3 percent), FCCL (up 0.6 percent) and TRG (up 0.2 percent) were the volume leaders.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023