KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange on Friday witnessed a mixed trend, however fresh buying at attractive, low levels in the second session supported the market to close on a positive note.

The benchmark KSE-100 Index increased by 310.24 points or 0.69 percent and closed at 45,312.66 points. The index hit 45,358.29 points intraday high and 44,795.82 points intraday low.

Trading activity however remained very low as daily volumes on ready counter decreased to 161.824 million shares as compared to 287.356 million shares traded on Thursday. The daily traded value on ready counter declined to Rs 4.464 billion against previous session’s Rs 12.303 billion.

BRIndex100 gained 30.9 points or 0.69 percent to close at 4,524.06 points with total daily turnover of 128.357 million shares.

BRIndex30 added 132.9 points or 0.85 percent to close at 15,831.29 points with total daily trading volumes of 67.305 million shares.

Foreign investors however remained net sellers of shares worth $506,082. Total market capitalization increased by Rs 47 billion to Rs 6.762 trillion. Out of total 294 active scrips, 197 closed in positive and only 81 in negative while the value of 16 stocks remained unchanged.

Nishat Chunian Power was the volume leader with 14.182 million shares however declined by Rs 1.00 to close at Rs 17.97 followed by WorldCall Telecom that closed at Rs 1.15, up Rs 0.01 with 12.700 million shares. Al-Shaheer Corp gained Rs 0.61 to close at Rs 9.50 with 12.148 million shares.

Nestle Pakistan and Indus Motor Co were the top gainers increasing by Rs 89.00 and Rs 52.00 respectively to close at Rs 7000.00 and Rs 987.71 while Bhanero Textile and Premium Textile were the top losers declining by Rs 34.99 and Rs 29.98 respectively to close at Rs 890.01 and Rs 370.15.

“Some respite came for investors as market recovered after five consecutive negative sessions, as index gained to close at 45,313 level, up by 0.7 percent,” an analyst at Topline Securities said.

Major contribution to the index came from HUBC, POL, UBL, PPL and OGDC, as they cumulatively contributed plus 181 points to the index. Investors were still skeptical as participation remained at lower end.

BR Automobile Assembler Index surged by 183.86 points or 2.1 percent to close at 8,934.78 points with total turnover of 7.541 million shares.

BR Cement Index lost 12.51 points or 0.27 percent to close at 4,551.64 points with 8.815 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index gained 67.45 points or 0.63 percent to close at 10,795.42 points with 20.864 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index increased by 130.82 points or 1.55 percent to close at 8,546.68 points with 27.920 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index added 69.88 points or 1.69 percent to close at 4,204.95 points with 14.775 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 3,700.92 points, down 0.14 points with 20.685 million shares.

Sara Saeed at JS Global Capital said the KSE-100 Index remained rangebound throughout the day and the index eventually closed at 45,313, gaining 310 points.

Major volume contributors were NCPL (down 5.3 percent), WTL (up 0.9 percent), ASC (up 6.9 percent), SEARLR2 (up 18.5 percent) and JSBL (up 0.5 percent).

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023