PSX manages meagre gains

KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Friday witnessed a rangebound session and after moving both ways, closed on slightly positive note.

The benchmark KSE-100 index hit 44,293.51 points intraday high and 44,086.74 points intraday low before closing at 44,207.31 points, up 28.46 points or 0.06 percent. Trading activity remained low as total daily volumes on ready counter decreased to 247.993 million shares as compared to 297.822 million shares traded on Thursday while total daily traded value on ready counter declined to Rs 8.512 billion against previous session’s Rs 12.428 billion.

BRIndex100 inched up by 3.95 points or 0.09 percent to close at 4,456.92 points with total daily turnover of 214.298 million shares.

BRIndex30 gained 31.7 points or 0.2 percent to close at 15,586.43 points with total daily trading volumes of 153.319 million shares.

Foreign investors remained net sellers of shares worth $467,790. Total market capitalization increased by Rs 3 billion to Rs 6.694 trillion. Out of total 327 active scrips, 158 closed in positive and 149 in negative while the value of 20 stocks remained unchanged.

WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 35.838 million shares and inched up by Rs 0.04 to close at Rs 1.25 followed by Telecard Limited that gained Rs 0.41 to close at Rs 7.72 with 19.877 million shares. TRG Pak increased by Rs 6.86 to close at Rs 106.43 with 14.648 million shares.

Siemens Pak and Mehmood Textile were the top gainers increasing by Rs 39.80 and Rs 37.38 respectively to close at Rs 738.80 and Rs 762.38 while Rafhan Maize and Mari Petroleum were the top losers declining by Rs 110.00 and Rs 9.79 respectively to close at Rs 8290.00 and Rs 1540.24.

“After bull run at the bourse previous day, a range bound session was observed as the index traded between its intraday high of plus 28 points and intraday low of minus 92 points to finally close at 44,207 level, up by 0.06 percent.

Major positive contribution to the index came from TRG, POL, SYS, PSEL and UNITY, as they cumulatively contributed plus 143 points to the index. On the flip side some profit taking was observed in HUBC, ENGRO, OGDC, PPL and MCB as they lost value to weigh down on the index by minus 91 points.

BR Automobile Assembler Index gained 48.8 points of 0.59 percent to close at 8,314.60 points with total turnover of 4.561 million shares.

BR Cement Index inched down by 7.23 points or 0.15 percent to close at 4,895.21 points with 13.064 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index lost 13.03 points or 0.14 percent to close at 9,236.24 points with 19.849 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index declined by 98.71 points or 1.19 percent to close at 8,184.79 points with 11.901 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index closed at 4,067.05 points, down 17.18 points or 0.42 percent with 13.095 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index increased by 118.23 points or 2.96 percent to close at 4,112.97 points with 95.151 million shares.

Muhammad Shuja Qureshi at JS Global Capital said that the index managed to hold the 44,000 level and closed with a gain of 28 points at 44,207.

The technology sector stole the show with AVN and TRG closing near upper limits. Refinery and steel sectors also posted gains.

The turnover dropped to 248 million shares where WTL (up 3.3 percent), TELE (up 5.6 percent), TRG (up 6.9 percent), AVN (up 7.2 percent), and UNITY (up 6.2 percent) were the volume leaders.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023