KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Thursday closed on a negative note as the investors opted to book profits on available margins.

The benchmark KSE-100 Index declined by 247.99 points or 0.54 percent and closed at 45,266.96 points. The index hit 45,971.00 points intraday high and 45,255.58 points intraday low.

Trading activity improved as daily volumes on ready counter increased to 489.176 million shares as compared to 450.259 million shares traded Wednesday The daily traded value on ready counter increased to Rs 14.543 billion against previous session’s Rs 13.139 billion.

BRIndex100 lost 34.23 points or 0.75 percent to close at 4,560.28 points with total daily turnover of 445.457 million shares.

BRIndex30 decreased by 73.75 points or 0.46 percent to close at 15,955.70 points with total daily trading volumes of 319.749 million shares.

Foreign investors also remained net sellers of shares worth $1.188 million. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 20 billion to Rs 6.879 trillion. Out of total 362 active scrips, 191 closed in negative and 142 in positive while the value of 29 stocks remained unchanged.

WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 55.536 million shares and closed at previous session’s closing level of Rs 1.29 without any change followed by TPL Properties that gained Rs 0.18 to close at Rs 14.28 with 42.173 million shares. K-Electric inched up by Rs 0.15 to close at Rs 2.05 with 30.446 million shares. Colgate Palmolive and Khyber Textile were the top gainers increasing by Rs 61.40 and Rs 42.91 respectively to close at Rs 1337.23 and Rs 844.00 while Sapphire Textile and Mehmood Textile were the top losers declining by Rs 59.49 and Rs 57.75 respectively to close at Rs 1050.51 and Rs 712.25.

“Buy on rumors sell on news” profit-taking day was observed at Pakistan equities where investors offload their positions after historic “bull run”, an analyst at Topline Securities said. The aforesaid momentum assisted benchmark KSE-100 index to make an intraday high at 45,971 levels (up 456 points; or 1.0 percent). However, investors opted to offload some of their positions which not only compelled market to lose some earlier gained ground but also put the aforesaid index into negative territory. Therefore, the day end at 45,267 levels (down 248 points; or 0.54%) at PSX.

Major contribution to the index came from COLG, KHYT, ISIL, BTL and SICT as they cumulatively gained 183.91 points. On the flip side SAPT, MEHT, NESTLE, BATA and MARI with 210.12 points negative.

BR Automobile Assembler Index increased by 110.43 points or 1.3 percent to close at 8,604.97 points with total turnover of 14.103 million shares.

BR Cement Index lost 25.44 points or 0.5 percent to close at 5,036.43 points with 20.802 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index declined by 100.26 points or 1.03 percent to close at 9,608.24 points with 38.509 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index closed at 8,412.11 points, down 0.01 points with 51.580 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index inched down by 18.16 points or 0.44 percent to close at 4,135.84 points with 39.524 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index decreased by 66.32 points or 1.62 percent to close at 4,038.30 points with 89.994 million shares.

Muhammad Shuja Qureshi at JS Global Capital said that the KSE-100 Index made an intraday high close to the 46,000 level, however, profit-taking was witnessed thereafter. The index finally ended the day losing 248 points to close at 45,267 level. Refinery and Auto sectors managed to close with some gains whereas SEARL closed limit up.

The market turnover was recorded at 489 million shares where WTL (zero percent), TPLP (up 1.3 percent), KEL (up 7.9 percent), UNITY (up 3.6 percent) and PRL (up 0.3 percent) were the volume leaders.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023