KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange on Friday witnessed a rangebound session and after moving both ways, closed on a negative note as investors opted to book profits during the second part of the trading session.
The benchmark KSE-100 Index declined by 198.98 points or 0.44 percent and closed at 45,067.98 points. The index hit 45,488.45 points intra-day high and 45,043.17 points intra-day low level.
Trading activity remained thin as total daily volumes on ready counter decreased to 267.514 million shares as compared to 489.176 million shares traded on Thursday. The daily traded value on ready counter declined to Rs 6.783 billion against previous session’s Rs 14.543 billion.
BRIndex100 lost 25.02 points or 0.55 percent to close at 4,535.26 points with total daily turnover of 242.315 million shares.
BRIndex30 decreased by 141.00 points or 0.88 percent to close at 15,814.70 points with total daily trading volumes of 177.061 million shares.
Foreign investors however remained net buyers of shares worth $252,608. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 7.0 billion to Rs 6.872 trillion. Out of total 323 active scrips, 196 closed in negative and 98 in positive while the value of 29 stocks remained unchanged.
Telecard Limited was the volume leader with 31.107 million shares and Rs 0.48 to close at Rs 8.28 followed by WorldCall Telecom that closed on previous session’s closing level of Rs 1.29 without any change with 20.052 million shares. K-Electric lost Rs 0.05 to close at Rs 2.00 with 19.448 million shares.
Colgate Palmolive and Pak Tobacco were the top gainers increasing by Rs 100.29 and Rs 30.00 respectively to close at Rs 1437.52 and Rs 725.00 while Unilever Foods and Premium Textile were the top losers declining by Rs 901.00 and Rs 33.98 respectively to close at Rs 22000.00 and Rs 475.01.
An analyst at Topline Securities said that a range-bound session was observed at the exchange where Index traded between an intraday high of plus 222 points and intraday low of minus 224 points to finally close at 45,068, down by 0.44 percent.
This range bound session can be attributed to investor caution around 45,000 index level, after rally in market post IMF program.
Major positive contribution to the index came from COLG, MEBL, UNITY, HUBC and PAKT, as they cumulatively contributed plus 129 points to the index. On the flip side ENGRO, OGDC, PPL, HBL and TRG lost value to weigh down on the index by minus 117 points.
BR Automobile Assembler Index inched down by 6.98 points or 0.08 percent to close at 8,597.99 points with total turnover of 12.211 million shares.
BR Cement Index decreased by 42.98 points or 0.85 percent to close at 4,993.45 points with 8.338 million shares.
BR Commercial Banks Index lost 26.69 points or 0.28 percent to close at 9,581.55 points with 26.604 million shares.
BR Power Generation and Distribution Index gained 36.77 points or 0.44 percent to close at 8,448.88 points with 29.028 million shares.
BR Oil and Gas Index declined by 52.41 points or 1.27 percent to close at 4,083.43 points with 12.413 million shares.
BR Tech. & Comm. Index fell by 36.62 points or 0.91 percent to close at 4,001.68 points with 60.522 million shares. Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corporation said stocks closed lower amid concerns for dismal data on LSMI output decline by 14.37 percent YoY in May 2023, surging Government Treasury Bond yields and hike in industrial power tariff.
He said investor concerns for soaring external debt, further IMF disbursements conditional upon IMF reviews implementing federal budgets, structural reforms, The SBP tight monetary policy, market based FX management played a catalyst role in bearish close.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023