KARACHI: After displaying best performance during the last trading session, Pakistan Stock Exchange Tuesday closed on a negative note as the investors opted to book profit on available margins.

The benchmark KSE-100 Index declined by 341.99 points or 0.78 percent and closed at 43,557.02 points. The index crossed 44,000 level to hit 44,511.52 points intraday high, however failed to sustain this level and due to profit-taking dropped at 43,488.38 points intraday low.

Trading activity however further improved as total daily volumes on ready counter increased to 419.302 million shares as compared to 381.904 million shares traded on Monday while total daily traded value on ready counter increased to Rs 15.839 billion against previous session’s Rs 8.647 billion.

BRIndex100 lost 19.76 points or 0.45 percent to close at 4,369.53 points with total daily turnover of 395.706 million shares.

BRIndex30 fell by 35.49 points or 0.23 percent to close at 15,261.64 points with total daily trading volumes of 297.354 million shares.

Foreign investors however remained net buyers of shares worth $3.464 million. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 65 billion to Rs 6.622 trillion. Out of total 333 active scrips, 211 closed in negative and 103 in positive while the value of 19 stocks remained unchanged.

Pak Refinery was the volume leader with 44.181 million shares and gained Rs 0.73 to close at Rs 15.31 followed by Cnergyico PK that closed at Rs 3.15, down Rs 0.03 with 42.405 million shares. WorldCall Telecom lost Rs 0.08 to close at Rs 1.15 with 26.598 million shares.

Sapphire Fiber and Al-Abbas Sugar were the top gainers increasing by Rs 39.00 and Rs 32.78 respectively to close at Rs 1234.00 and Rs 469.78 while Nestle Pakistan and Pak Tobacco were the top losers declining by Rs 150.00 and Rs 39.00 respectively to close at Rs 6450.00 and Rs 681.00.

An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the market witnessed profit-selling after displaying the best performance ever in the last three trading sessions, pushing the KSE-100 Index up by 9.5 percent. Investor opted to realize some gains cropping the index by 341 points, down 0.78 percent to close at 43,557 points. Activity remained healthy during the trading session. E&P, Refinery and Technology sectors remained in the limelight.

Sectors contributing to the performance include Fertilizer (down 160.7 points), Cement (down 76.4 points), Chemical (down 44.3 points), Automobile Assembler (down 41.5 points) and Commercial Banks (down 41.1 points).

BR Automobile Assembler Index plunged by 200.34 points or 2.4 percent to close at 8,159.98 points with total turnover of 4.036 million shares.

BR Cement Index declined by 99.6 points or 2.02 percent to close at 4,832.23 points with 40.747 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index fell by 40.8 points or 0.45 percent to close at 9,074.34 points with 38.135 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index increased by 72.21 points or 0.91 percent to close at 8,001.48 points with 34.106 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index lost 14.7 points or 0.36 percent to close at 4,022.30 points with 56.603 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index gained 32.01 points or 0.82 percent to close at 3,912.10 points with 59.235 million shares.

Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corporation said that stocks closed under pressure amid dismal data for cement sales dropping by 22.8 percent YoY and CPI inflation at 29.4 percent YoY for June 2023. He said institutional profit taking in over bought stocks, dismal data on exports falling by 40 percent for FY23 and concerns over Fitch, Moody’s warning on economic risks played a catalyst role in bearish close.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023