KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange on Friday remained under pressure due to selling on investor concerns over depreciating PKR against the USD and political unrest.

The benchmark KSE-100 Index hit 41,921.35 points intraday high and 41,603.42 points intraday low before closing at 41,679.49 points, down 92.60 points or 0.22 percent.

Trading activity also remained low as total daily volumes on ready counter decreased to 219.351 million shares as compared to 259.979 million shares traded on Thursday while total daily traded value on ready counter declined to Rs 8.892 billion against previous day’s Rs 10.111 billion.

BRIndex100 lost 3.39 points or 0.09 percent to close at 4,179.03 points with total daily turnover of 184.616 million shares.

BRIndex30 closed at 15,578.11 points, up 151.63 points or 0.98 percent with total daily trading volumes of 124.423 million shares.

Foreign investors remained net buyers of shares worth $3.478 million. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 31 billion to Rs 6.854 trillion. Out of total 315 active scrips, 188 closed in negative and 108 in positive while the value of 19 stocks remained unchanged.

TRG Pak was the volume leader with 27.566 million shares and surged by Rs 6.67 to close at Rs 116.19 followed by Hascol Petroleum that gained Rs 0.50 to close at Rs 6.92 with 26.089 million shares. WorldCall Telecom closed at Rs 1.19, up Rs 0.01 with 20.950 million shares.

Bata Pak and Colgate Palmolive were the top gainers increasing by Rs 150.00 and Rs 122.70 respectively to close at Rs 2,200.00 and Rs 2,140.00 while Rafhan Maize and Sapphire Fiber were the top losers declining by Rs 250.00 and Rs 70.00 respectively to close at Rs 9,750.00 and Rs 931.00.

An analyst at Topline Securities said that rangebound session was observed at the bourse, as the index juggled between intraday high of plus 145 points and intraday low of minus 169 points, to finally close at 41,733 level, down by 0.09 percent.

Major contribution to the index came from TRG, COLG, ENGRO, HUBC and LOTCHEM, as they cumulatively contributed 125 points to the index. On the flip side MEBL, HBL, POL, PAKT and BAHL lost value to weigh down on the index by 112 points.

BR Automobile Assembler Index gained 5.16 points or 0.06 percent to close at 9,134.68 points with total turnover of 201,837 shares.

BR Cement Index lost 22.72 points or 0.5 percent to close at 4,489.06 points with 8.425 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index decreased by 76.9 points or 0.88 percent to close at 8,661.86 points with 17.913 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index added 11.96 points or 0.21 percent to close at 5,704.85 points with 38.437 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index closed at 3,806.47 points, down 13.46 points or 0.35 percent with 33.178 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index increased by 77.72 points or 1.97 percent to close at 4,029.71 points with 68.302 million shares.

An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the market remained under pressure throughout the day as investor’ participation remained left and right. PSX opened in the positive zone but traded in a range equally during both the sessions. The continued parity of Pak rupee against US dollar, political and economic uncertainty kept the investors on the sideline. Volumes remained decent although 3rd tier stocks remained in the limelight.

Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (down 81.3 points), E&P (down 27.3 points), Tobacco (down 18.4 points), Cement (down 16.7 points) and Investment Banks (down 10.0 points).

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022

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