KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Wednesday witnessed a rangebound session as investors remained cautious due to prevailing political situation in the country.
The market opened on positive note, however investors opted to book profit in last hours of the session that eroded the intraday gains.
The benchmark KSE-100 Index hit 41,342.23 points intraday high and 41,064.40 points intraday low before closing at 41,117.33 points, up only 18.02 points or 0.04 percent.
Daily volumes on ready counter stood at 105.572 million shares as compared to 91.494 million shares traded on Tuesday while total daily traded value on the ready counter slightly increased to Rs 2.576 billion against previous session’s Rs 2.390 billion.
BRIndex100 inched down by 2.52 points or 0.06 percent to close at 4,118.63 points with total daily turnover of 68.014 million shares.
BRIndex30 lost 26.81 points or 0.19 percent to close at 14,068.54 points with total daily trading volumes of 44.103 million shares.
The market capitalization increased by Rs 27 billion to Rs 6.227 trillion. Out of total 313 active scrips, 152 closed in negative and 136 in positive while the value of 25 stocks remained unchanged.
Hascol Petroleum was the volume leader with 21.513 million shares and gained Rs 0.86 to close at Rs 5.22 followed by WorldCall Telecom that inched up by Rs 0.01 to close at Rs 1.12 with 6.250 million shares. HBL Total Treas closed at Rs 11.20, up Rs 0.03 with 5.005 million shares.
Nestle Pakistan and Al-Abbas Sugar were the top gainers increasing by Rs 200.00 and Rs 30.38 respectively to close at Rs 6700.00 and Rs 435.38 while Reliance Cotton and Premium Textile were the top losers declining by Rs 43.35 and Rs 38.54 respectively to close at Rs 534.82 and Rs 475.36.
“Another rangebound session was recorded at the PSX,” an analyst at Arif Habib Limited said. The day began with favorable sentiments regarding the news for the renewal of the IMF program, reaching an intraday high of plus 242.92 points keeping the PSX in green. However, in the last trading hour profit selling was witnessed resulting the index to close at lower level. Investor engagement was dilatory, with third-tier equities leading the volume board.
Sectors contributing to the performance include Textile Composite (up 27.0 points), E&P (up 22.7 points), Food & Personal Care Products (up 21.2 points), Commercial Banks (up 13.0 points) and Tobacco (up 7.2 points).
BR Automobile Assembler Index decreased by 44.27 points or 0.59 percent to close at 7,495.51 points with total turnover of 840,606 shares.
BR Cement Index inched down by 0.4 points or 0.01 percent to close at 4,247.97 points with 5.123 million shares.
BR Commercial Banks Index gained 18.71 points or 0.22 percent to close at 8,645.03 points with 6.272 million shares.
BR Power Generation and Distribution Index fell by 34.78 points or 0.47 percent to close at 7,318.62 points with 5.412 million shares.
BR Oil and Gas Index added 15.1 points or 0.4 percent to close at 3,762.23 points with 29.302 million shares.
BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 3,690.43 points, down 21.25 points or 0.57 percent with 13.185 million shares.
An analyst at Topline Securities said that lackluster activity was observed at the exchange as the index traded with low volumes between its intraday high of plus 243 points and intraday low of minus 35 points to close at 41,117 level, up by 0.04 percent.
Major positive contribution to the index came from POL, NML, NESTLE, HBL and FCEPL, as they cumulatively contributed 63 points to the index. On the flip side DAWH, SYS, PSO, HUBC and HMB lost value to weigh down on the index by minus 57 points.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023