KARACHI: After a positive opening on Tuesday, Pakistan Stock Exchange dropped into negative zone due to heavy selling pressure as the investors opted to book profit at available margins. However, the market immediately recovered its intra-day losses and closed on positive note on the back of renewed buying from local and foreign investors.
The benchmark KSE-100 Index hit 56,873.99 points intraday high and 56,118.18 points intraday low before closing at its new highest-ever level of 56,665.93 points, up 142.35 points or 0.25 percent.
Trading activity remained low as daily volumes on ready counter decreased to 526.356 million shares as compared to 660.649 million shares traded on Monday. The daily traded value on ready counter declined to Rs 19.539 billion against previous session’s Rs 22.409 billion.
BRIndex100 gained 10.78 points or 0.19 percent to close at 5,773.80 points with total daily turnover of 465.853 million shares.
BRIndex30 increased by 178.09 points or 0.88 percent to close at 20,331.41 points with total daily trading volumes of 289.548 million shares.
Foreign investors also remained net buyers of shares worth $1.883 million. The market capitalization increased by Rs 33 billion to Rs 8.115 trillion. Out of total 367 active scrips, 185 closed in positive and 161 in negative while the value of 21 stocks remained unchanged.
Pak Refinery was the volume leader with 44.488 million shares and gained Rs 0.66 to close at Rs 23.75 followed by Cnergyico PK that closed at the previous session’s closing level of Rs 4.70 without any change with 40.027 million shares. WorldCall Telecom lost Rs 0.01 to close at Rs 1.36 with 27.414 million shares.
Nestle Pakistan and Rafhan Maize were the top gainers increasing by Rs 552.50 and Rs 75.25, respectively to close at Rs 8400.00 and Rs 8600.00 while Faisal Spinning and Al-Abbas Sugar were the top losers declining by Rs 30.15 and Rs 30.00 respectively to close at Rs 371.85 and Rs 495.00.
An analyst at Topline Securities said the Pakistan’s equities kicked off positively, but a rapid 755-point decline, initiated by sellers, led to a decrease in the index. Subsequently, the bulls re-entered the market to take advantage of the downturn. Ultimately, the day concluded at 56,665 points, reflecting an increase of 142 points or 0.25 percent.
During the day Power, IT, Food & Personnel, and Auto sectors contributed positively as HUBC, MTL, SYS, NESTLE, and TRG collectively added 268 points to the index. Conversely, EFERT, UBL, and MEBL together caused a loss of 111 points.
BR Automobile Assembler Index increased by 265.00 points or 2.22 percent to close at 12,208.70 points with total turnover of 5.412 million shares.
BR Cement Index lost 27.42 points or 0.43 percent to close at 6,320.27 points with 67.452 million shares.
BR Commercial Banks Index declined by 132.62 points or 1.0 percent to close at 13,134.57 points with 28.484 million shares.
BR Power Generation and Distribution Index surged by 366.28 points or 2.69 percent to close at 13,980.06 points with 37.799 million shares.
BR Oil and Gas Index gained 24.32 points or 0.49 percent to close at 4,974.69 points with 45.485 million shares.
BR Tech. & Comm. Index added 76.1 points or 2.02 percent to close at 3,847.02 points with 83.405 million shares.
Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corporation said stocks reached new all-time high as the government is near completion of IMF first review under $3.0 billion SBA and receipt of $710 million tranche likely next month.
Speculations over outcome of MSCI quarterly review to ascend MSCI frontier markets weigh and commitments over financial support of bilateral partners played a catalyst role in bullish close.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023