KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange on Wednesday witnessed a mixed trend and after moving in both directions, closed in negative zone due to selling pressure in the second half of trade.

The benchmark KSE-100 Index hit 73,079.18 points intra-day high and 72,358.19 points intraday low before closing at 72,601.82 points, down 159.38 points or 0.22 percent.

Trading activity improved significantly as daily volumes on the ready counter increased to 970.325 million shares as compared to 621.826 million shares traded on Tuesday. The daily traded value on the ready counter declined to Rs 23.514 billion against previous session’s Rs 24.970 billion.

BRIndex100 lost 8.28 points or 0.11 percent to close at 7,629.71 points with total daily turnover of 889.110 million shares.

BRIndex30 gained 18.39 points or 0.07 percent to close at 24,989.89 points with total daily trading volumes of 716.001 million shares.

Foreign investors remained net buyers of shares worth $446,634. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 46 billion to stand at Rs 9.804 trillion. Out of total 388 active scrips, 208 closed in negative and 149 in positive while the value of 31 stocks remained unchanged.

WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 407.883 million shares and gained Rs 0.23 to close at Rs 1.51 followed by K-Electric that inched up by Rs 0.28 to close at Rs 4.68 with 68.032 million shares. Hum Network increased by Rs 1.00 to close at Rs 9.03 with 56.105 million shares.

Service Industries and Highnoon Laboratories were the top gainers increasing by Rs 49.60 and Rs 26.83 respectively to close at Rs 710.91 and Rs 649.82 while Unilever Pakistan Foods and Hallmark Company were the top losers declining by Rs 552.77 and Rs 68.00 respectively to close at Rs 18,995.18 and Rs 838.62.

An analyst at Topline Securities said Pakistan stock market index wrapped up the trading day at 72,602, marking a decrease of 159 points or 0.22 percent. Throughout the session, the index displayed a mixed trend, hitting highs of 73,079 and lows of 72,358 points.

The decline in the index was mainly propelled by DAWH, EFERT, MCB, LUCK, and UBL, collectively causing a drop of 210 points. Conversely, SRVI, FFC, and KEL balanced this out by adding 97 points to the index.

BR Automobile Assembler Index declined by 204.1 points or 1.26 percent to close at 16,045.06 points with total turnover of 16.984 million shares.

BR Cement Index decreased by 80.24 points or 1.1 percent to close at 7,239.89 points with 21.260 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index lost 27.77 points or 0.15 percent to close at 18,968.32 points with 33.339 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index increased by 110.64 points or 0.66 percent to close at 16,900.03 points with 97.555 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index closed at 6,601.04 points, up 0.62 points or 0.01 percent with 36.979 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index added 44.72 points or 1.22 percent to close at 3,698.41 points with 505.858 million shares.

Mohammed Waqar Iqbal at JS Global Capital said profit taking continued across the board as the benchmark KSE-100 Index closed 159 points down at 72,602 level.

Traded volume stood at 970 million shares where WTL (up 18 percent), KEL (up 6.4 percent), HUMNL (up 12 percent), PAEL (down 4.5 percent) and SLGL (up 0.7 percent) were the highest contributors.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024