KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange witnessed a positive trend on the first day after long Eid holidays on the back of fresh buying in various sectors, Wednesday.
The market opened on a positive note and witnessed bullish trend during most part of the session, however profit-hunting at the fag end minimized intraday gains.
The benchmark KSE-100 Index hit 41,364.60 points intraday high, however closed at lower level at 41,099.58 points with net gain of 91.76 points or 0.22 percent.
Trading activity also improved as daily volumes on the ready counter increased to 186.900 million shares as compared to 173.790 million shares traded in previous session. The daily traded value increased to Rs 5.781 billion against previous Rs 5.724 billion.
BRIndex100 inched up by 6.25 points or 0.15 percent to close at 4,197.04 points with total daily turnover of 162.363 million shares.
BRIndex30 added 47.1 points or 0.32 percent to close at 14,956.24 points with daily trading volumes of 116.280 million shares.
Foreign investors also remained net buyers of shares worth $902,070. Total market capitalization increased by Rs 12 billion to Rs 6.213 trillion. Out of total 331 active scrips, 174 closed in positive and 131 in negative while the value of 26 stocks remained unchanged.
Pak Refinery was the volume leader with 16.012 million shares and gained Rs 0.70 to close at Rs 14.22 followed by Fauji Foods that inched up by Rs 0.02 to close at Rs 6.35 with 13.692 million shares. WorldCall Telecom closed at previous session’s closing level of Rs 1.14 without any change with 10.382 million shares.
Khyber Textile and Sanofi-Aventis were the top gainers increasing by Rs 52.45 and Rs 40.00 respectively to close at Rs 774.90 and Rs 700.00 while Sapphire Fiber and JS Global Cap were the top losers declining by Rs 74.02 and Rs 24.33 respectively to close at Rs 970.51 and Rs 300.21.
“Following a long Eid holidays, the PSX resumed trading with a bullish session,” an analyst at Arif Habib Limited said. The benchmark KSE-100 Index opened in the green as bulls took control, reaching an intraday high of plus 356.07 points as investors remained hopeful for the release of the IMF’s Extended Fund Facility, with media reports indicating funding from friendly countries. Investor activity increased substantially as stronger volumes were observed across-the-board, with 3rd tier equities leading the volume board.
Sectors contributing to the performance include Commercial Banks (up 56.0 points), Inv. Banks / Inv. Cos. / Securities Cos. (up 42.4 points), Technology & Communication (up 13.1 points), Food & Personal Care Products (up 12.0 points), and Refinery (up 9.2 points).
BR Automobile Assembler Index added 5.48 points or 0.07 percent to close at 7,608.10 points with total turnover of 5.754 million shares.
BR Cement Index lost 15.45 points or 0.4 percent to close at 3,895.81 points with 10.578 million shares.
BR Commercial Banks Index increased by 64.56 points or 0.76 percent to close at 8,547.23 points with 22.781 million shares.
BR Power Generation and Distribution Index gained 26.18 points or 0.36 percent to close at 7,328.19 points with 12.427 million shares.
BR Oil and Gas Index inched up by 2.02 points or 0.05 percent to close at 3,973.57 points with 16.847 million shares.
BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 4,114.82 points, up 14.21 points or 0.35 percent with 25.198 million shares.
An analyst at Topline Securities said that Pakistan equities closed positive where the benchmark KSE-100 Index settled at 41,099 level, up 0.22 percent.
The market opened on positive note over revival of IMF loan agreement as government of Pakistan had met all conditions of the IMF as per Minister of Finance Ishaq Dar which led the market to make an intraday high of plus 356 points.
UBL, DAWH, BAHL, FFC and HUBC were the major gainers in the trading session cumulatively added 153 points in the KSE-100 Index.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023