KARACHI: Fresh buying in certain stocks on Thursday supported the Pakistan Stock Exchange to close on a positive note.

The benchmark KSE-100 Index gained 59.13 points or 0.13 percent and closed at 45,650.06 points. The index hit 45,776.97 points intraday high and 45,581.49 points intraday low.

Trading activity also improved as daily volumes on ready counter increased to 138.172 million shares as compared to 102.767 million shares traded on Wednesday. The daily traded value on ready counter declined to Rs 2.778 billion against previous session’s Rs 3.800 billion.

BRIndex100 inched up by 6.94 points or 0.15 percent to close at 4,571.15 points with total daily turnover of 109.868 million shares.

BRIndex30 closed at 16,160.93 points, up 2.96 points or 0.02 percent with total daily trading volumes of 62.472 million shares.

Foreign investors however remained net sellers of shares worth $252,953. The market capitalization declined by Rs 10 billion to Rs 6.760 trillion. Out of total 316 active scrips, 148 closed in positive and 138 in negative while the value of 30 stocks remained unchanged.

K-Electric was the volume leader with 18.078 million shares and closed at the previous session’s closing level of Rs 1.90 without any change followed by Al-Shaheer Corp that gained Rs 0.76 to close at Rs 11.32 with 18.007 million shares. SEARLR2 inched up by Rs 0.51 to close at Rs 1.60 with 16.376 million shares.

Premium Textile and Pak Services were the top gainers increasing by Rs 26.00 and Rs 20.00 respectively to close at Rs 378.10 and Rs 670.00 while Allawasaya Textile and Nestle Pakistan were the top losers declining by Rs 110.00 and Rs 85.00 respectively to close at Rs 1560.00 and Rs 7015.00.

An analyst at Topline Securities said the Pakistan equities market ended the day with a slight gain, closing at 45,650.06, which represented a 0.13 percent increase or a rise of 59.13 points when compared to the previous session.

During the trading session, the index stayed within a relatively narrow range as investors kept a close eye on the outcome of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting scheduled for the day. The prevailing market consensus suggests an expected 100-150 basis points (BPS) increase in interest rates during the MPC meeting.

Banks and Auto stocks, including, DAWH, HMB, BAHL, PSEL and MTL, made a positive contribution by adding 68 points. However, PAKT, NESTLE, and PKGS collectively lost 31 points.

BR Automobile Assembler Index gained 29.32 points or 0.33 percent to close at 8,997.35 points with total turnover of 2.438 million shares.

BR Cement Index lost 10.32 points or 0.23 percent to close at 4,546.68 points with 10.351 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index increased by 43.91 points or 0.41 percent to close at 10,768.10 points with 7.661 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index added 11.5 points or 0.13 percent to close at 8,815.63 points with 22.930 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index inched up by 3.25 points or 0.08 percent to close at 4,272.22 points with 9.924 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 3,710.35 points, up 1.79 points or 0.05 percent with 8.690 million shares.

Mubashir Anis Naviwala at JS Global Capital said that the KSE-100 Index closed on a positive note at 45,650, gaining 59 points. Traded volume stood at 138 million shares where KEL (zero percent), ASC (up 7.2 percent), MLCF (up 0.4 percent), AGL (up 1.4 percent) and WTL (zero percent) were the volume leaders.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023