Equities inch up

Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed another volatile session Friday. The 100-index, after moving between 50,093.38 points intra-day high and 49,845.47 points intra-day low, closed at 49,925.08 points with a modest gain of 16.93 points on Friday.
Trading activity remained low as the trading volumes on the ready counter decreased to 354.875 million shares as compared to 538.907 million shares traded Thursday. The market capitalisation declined by Rs 5 billion to stand at Rs 9.881 trillion. Out of total 422 active scrips, 238 closed in negative, 168 in positive while the value of 16 stocks remained unchanged. Power Cement was the volume leader with 26.571 million shares. It increased by Rs 0.86 to close at Rs 18.85 followed by TRG Pak that gained Rs 0.59 to close at Rs 61.65 with 19.587 million shares. Aisha Steel Mill surged by Rs 1.19 to close at Rs 28.22 with 18.539 million shares.
Island Textile and Shell Pakistan were the top gainers with Rs 51.92 and Rs 26.65, respectively to close at Rs 1,129.00 and Rs 559.67. Mari Petroleum and Ghandhara Industries were the top losers with Rs 56.00 and Rs 49.66, respectively to close at Rs 1,338.90 and Rs 949.13.
Nabeel Haroon at JS Global Capital said that volatility prevailed in the market as the index traded between an intraday high of 185 points and intraday low of 62 points to finally close on a flat note (up 0.03 percent). Profit taking to some extent was witnessed in the cement sector during the second half, as sector heavyweights DGKC (down 0.18 percent), MLCF (down 2.04 percent) and FCCL (0.94 percent) lost value to close in the red zone. Investors interest was witnessed in fertilizer sector, as the sector gained to close (up 1.0 percent) higher than its previous day close. FFBL (up 2.71 percent) was one of the major gainers of the fertilizer sector. Meanwhile OGDC (up 0.15 percent) and POL (up 0.74 percent) in the E&P sector gained to close in the green zone, as crude oil prices surged for the second consecutive day to trade comfortably above $53.5/bbl level for most part of the day.
An analyst at Global Securities said that the local bourse yet again gave a volatile session as index remained directionless throughout the day, hovering within a range of 242 points while closing with a sublime positive change of 16.93 points. Major support towards the index came from ENGRO (up 2.01 percent)and DAWH(2.23 percent) contributing 60 points towards the index as investors anticipated better results amid announcement of enormous dividend by their subsidiaries. PIBTL (5.0 percent) closed at its upper circuit supporting the index by 19 points as investors put their bets on upcoming commissioning of their facility. While, the main laggards emerged as MARI (down 4.65 percent), HUBC (down 1.25 percent) and UBL (down 0.97 percent) eroding 75.37 points from the index.