KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange on Wednesday witnessed a mixed trend and after moving in both directions, closed on slightly positive note.
The benchmark KSE-100 Index hit 56,846.68 points intraday high and 56,433.05 points intraday low before closing at its new highest level of 56,680.07 points, slightly up by 14.14 points or 0.02 percent.
BRIndex100 inched up by 11.1 points or 0.19 percent to close at 5,784.90 points with daily turnover of 588.560 million shares.
BRIndex30 gained 77.6 points or 0.38 percent to close at 20,409.01 points with daily trading volumes of 384.937 million shares.
Trading activity also improved as daily volumes on the ready counter increased to 661.624 million shares as compared to 526.356 million shares traded on Tuesday. The daily traded value on ready counter increased to Rs 24.353 billion against previous session’s Rs 19.539 billion.
Total market capitalization increased by Rs 27 billion to Rs 8.142 trillion. Out of total 360 active scrips, 196 closed in positive and 147 in negative while the value of 17 stocks remained unchanged.
WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 70.271 million shares and gained Rs 0.05 to close at Rs 1.40 followed by Pak Refinery that increased by Rs 0.59 to close at Rs 24.24 with 37.133 million shares. Sui Northern Gas lost Rs 0.15 to close at Rs 53.96 with 22.477 million shares.
Rafhan Maize and Pak Engineering were the top gainers increasing by Rs 300.00 and Rs 30.69 respectively to close at 8900.00 and Rs 439.88 while Faisal Spinning and Siemens Pak were the top losers declining by Rs 27.89 and Rs 22.75 respectively to close at Rs 343.96 and Rs 762.00.
Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corporation said stocks closed flat amid concerns for federal cabinet discussions on tax over windfall corporate earnings and MSCI decision to reduce weigh in MSCI frontier market index to 2.94 percent, MSCI Pakistan Index deleting 4 companies and dismal data on LSMI output rising by 1.0 percent YoY in September 2023.
He said the IMF expectations for imminent deal on a debt review for loan agreement to improve access to other credit played a catalyst role in positive close with record trades and Rs 24.3 billion value traded at PSX.
BR Automobile Assembler Index plunged by 192.59 points or 1.58 percent to close at 12,016.11 points with total turnover of 7.407 million shares.
BR Cement Index decreased by 66.92 points or 1.06 percent to close at 6,253.35 points with 42.240 million shares.
BR Commercial Banks Index fell by 105.41 points or 0.8 percent to close at 13,029.16 points with 31.925 million shares.
BR Power Generation and Distribution Index declined by 176.35 points or 1.26 percent to close at 13,803.71 points with 45.803 million shares.
BR Oil and Gas Index increased by 119.22 points or 2.4 percent to close at 5,093.91 points with 107.901 million shares.
BR Tech. & Comm. Index gained 9.66 points or 0.25 percent to close at 3,856.68 points with 119.286 million shares.
An analyst at Topline Securities said Pakistan equities observed mixed price action during the session. The day commenced the business on a positive note but surrendered to selling headwinds just after opening in the backdrop of unexpected outcome of Tuesday’s night MSCI Equity Indexes November 2023 Review where Pakistan weight in MSCI Frontier Index got reduced by 24bps against the street expectation of some improvement in the aforesaid league.
Resultantly, the KSE-100 index made an intraday low at 56,433 (down 233 points or 0.41 percent). However, Bloomberg report regarding “Pakistan ongoing review to be concluded any time in this week”, regenerated buying momentum and assisted the day to close at flat note and at 56,680 level, up 14 points or 0.02 percent.
During the trading hours, OMC, E&P, Food & Refinery sector’s stocks contributed positively as PSO, OGDC, PPL, UNITY and ATRL added 225 points. On the other hand, some stocks like HUBC, BAHL and MTL experienced some profit taking, resulting in a combined loss of 180 points.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023