Stocks up in dull trade

KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange on Wednesday witnessed a positive trend and closed in green on the back of fresh buying in some stocks.

The benchmark KSE-100 Index increased by 137.44 points or 0.22 percent and closed at 61,979.18 points. The index crossed 62,000 psychological level to hit 62,600.12 points intraday high however closed at lower level due to profit-taking in the second half of the trading session.

Trading activity remained low as total daily volumes on ready counter decreased to 276.464 million shares as compared to 436.120 million shares traded on Tuesday while total daily traded value on the ready counter declined to Rs 9.271 billion against previous session’s Rs 15.286 billion.

BRIndex100 gained 34.1 points or 0.54 percent to close at 6,344.06 points with total daily turnover of 237.699 million shares.

BRIndex30 added 101.68 points or 0.46 percent to close at 22,200.05 points with total daily trading volumes of 177.473 million shares.

Foreign investors remained on the selling sides and withdrew $2.090 million from the local equity market. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 4 billion to Rs 9.073 trillion. Out of total 349 active scrips, 165 closed in positive and 151 in negative while the value of 33 stocks remained unchanged.

K-Electric was the volume leader with 36.273 million shares however lost Rs 0.11 to close at Rs 4.54 followed by Bank of Punjab that gained Rs 0.40 to close at Rs 6.20 with 20.853 million shares. Hascol Petroleum closed at the previous session’s closing level of Rs 7.91 without any change with 14.174 million shares.

Unilever Pakistan Foods and Sazgar Engineering Works Limited were the top gainers increasing by Rs 1,551.83 and Rs 13.48 respectively to close at Rs 22,364.33 and Rs 211.19 while Nestle Pakistan and Colgate Palmolive Pakistan were the top losers declining by Rs 100.00 and Rs 40.33 respectively to close at Rs 8,200.00 and Rs 1,404.00.

An analyst at Topline Securities said that the KSE-100 Index largely traded in positive zone during the trading session as it gained to make an intraday high of plus 758 points, however skeptical investors preferred to book their intraday gain as the index declined to close at 61,979 level, up by 0.22 percent.

The investor participation declined during the trading session which can be attributed to their preference to remain on sidelines before the upcoming election on February 8th.

BR Automobile Assembler Index increased by 127.44 points or 0.94 percent to close at 13,756.17 points with total turnover of 5.074 million shares.

BR Cement Index lost 10.65 points or 0.17 percent to close at 6,394.91 points with 6.850 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index added 125.95 points or 0.82 percent to close at 15,455.60 points with 54.454 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index inched up by 9.61 points or 0.07 percent to close at 13,772.83 points with 40.221 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index gained 6.74 points or 0.11 percent to close at 6,093.82 points with 34.450 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 3,541.24 points, up 11.47 points or 0.32 percent with 34.303 million shares.

“Last day of the month saw KSE-100 Index gaining 137 points to close at 61,979,” Muhammad Shuja Qureshi at JS Global Capital said. However, investor sentiment remained weak as market turnover dropped to 276 million shares.

Auto and Banking sectors managed to post gains for the day. SNBL announced a final cash dividend of Rs 3/share and closed limit up. SAZEW reported first half FY24 EPS of Rs 23.40/share and gained 6.8 percent.

KEL (down 2.4 percent), BOP (up 6.9 percent), HASCOL (zero percent), WTL (up 1.6 percent) and SNBL (up 8.9 percent) were the top five volume leaders.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024