KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Thursday witnessed a positive trend on the back of fresh buying in various sectors. The benchmark KSE-100 Index gained 44.89 points or 0.11 percent and closed at 42,393.52 points.

The index hit 42,658.87 points intraday high however closed at slightly low level due to profit-taking in some stocks after mid-session.

Trading activity also improved as daily volumes on the ready counter increased to 161.778 million shares as compared to 120.196 million shares traded Wednesday. The daily traded value on the ready counter stood at Rs 4.687 billion against Wednesday’s Rs 4.657 billion.

BRIndex100 gained 8.72 points or 0.21 percent to close at 4,256.05 points with total daily turnover of 110.547 million shares.

BRIndex30 closed at 15,726.51 points, down 43.73 points or 0.28 percent with average daily trading volumes of 60.349 million shares.

Foreign investors however remained net sellers of shares worth $134,186. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 2 billion to Rs 6.766 trillion. Out of total 344 active scrips, 180 closed in positive and 142 in negative while the value of 22 stocks remained unchanged.

WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 15.341 million shares and gained Rs 0.05 to close at Rs 1.41 followed by Hascol Petroleum that inched up by Rs 0.16 to close at Rs 7.82 with 12.137 million shares. Ghani Chemical closed at Rs 17.81, up Rs 0.30 with 7.820 million shares.

Pak Services and Thal Ind. Corp were the top gainers increasing by Rs 46.91 and Rs 14.00 respectively to close at Rs 801.62 and Rs 284.00 while Rafhan Maize and Premium Textile were the top losers declining by Rs 824.25 and Rs 51.67 respectively to close at Rs 10165.75 and Rs 637.32.

“A positive session was witnessed at the PSX continuing the acclamatory momentum from the previous close,” an analyst at Arif Habib Limited said. An increase in OMC margins facilitated the market participation on the higher side.

The market opened in positive territory and made an intraday high of plus 309.76 points as investors elected for value angling in the main board. Healthy volumes were recorded across the board, whereas 3rd tier stocks remained volume leaders.

Sectors contributing to the performance include Commercial Banks (up 73.5 points), Miscellaneous (up 25.7 points), Power Generation and Distribution (up 19.8 points), Oil and Gas Marketing Companies (up 10.6 points), Fertilizer (up 5.6 points).

BR Automobile Assembler Index lost 34.15 points or 0.39 percent to close at 8,641.00 points with total turnover of 1.990 million shares.

BR Cement Index inched down by 26.89 points or 0.63 percent to close at 4,250.02 points with 7.351 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index increased by 79.05 points or 0.94 percent to close at 8,450.11 points with 17.622 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index gained 57.7 points or 0.85 percent to close at 6,835.88 points with 15.683 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index closed at 3,870.01 points, down 0.06 points with 20.450 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index fell by 15.42 points or 0.32 percent to close at 4,836.43 points with 27.003 million shares.

An analyst at Topline Securities said that Pakistan equities closed slight positive where the benchmark KSE-100 Index settled at 42,393 level, up 0.11 percent. Despite Wednesday’s increase in secondary market yields and increase in international commodity prices, the market opened on a positive note making an intraday high of 309 points. However, this positivity didn’t sustain at the bourse and profit-taking was witnessed in second half which led the market to close almost unchanged.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022

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