KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange on Thursday witnessed a mixed trend and remained oscillating in both directions throughout the trading session as investors opted to book profits on available margins.
The benchmark KSE-100 Index hit 72,593.25 points intraday high and 71,700.54 points intraday low, before closing at 71,971.40 points, down 80.49 points or 0.11 percent.
Trading activity improved as daily volumes on ready counter increased to 798.527 million shares as compared to 599.401 million shares traded on Wednesday. The daily traded value on the ready counter increased to Rs 27.542 billion against previous session’s Rs 24.459 billion.
BRIndex100 gained 32.92 points or 0.44 percent to close at 7,525.78 points with total daily turnover of 724.818 million shares.
BRIndex30 added 91.4 points or 0.37 percent to close at 24,649.56 points with daily trading volumes of 550.031 million shares.
Foreign investors however remained net buyers of shares worth $406,344. The market capitalization declined by Rs 17 billion to Rs 9.952 trillion. Out of total 389 active scrips, 191 closed in negative and 173 in positive while the value of 25 stocks remained unchanged.
K-Electric was the volume leader with 119.648 million shares and gained Rs 0.50 to close at Rs 4.64 followed by WorldCall Telecom that inched up by Rs 0.05 to close at Rs 1.39 with 79.958 million shares. Unity Foods closed at Rs 24.91, up Rs 0.60 with 44.276 million shares.
Hallmark Company and Mari Petroleum Company were the top gainers increasing by Rs 74.31 and Rs 28.33, respectively to close at Rs 1,072.52 and Rs 2,829.10 while Unilever Pakistan Foods and Sapphire Textile Mills were the top losers declining by Rs 372.99 and Rs 79.34 respectively to close at Rs 20,255.00 and Rs 1,186.03.
An analyst at Topline Securities said the trading session in Pakistan’s stock market ended with the index closing at 71,971, indicating a slight decrease of 0.11 percent or 80 points.
Sectors such as Oil & Gas Exploration, Auto, Banking, Cement, and Fertilizer contributed to the index’s decline, with companies like MTL, POL, LUCK, FABL, and ENGRO collectively losing 206 points. Conversely, UBL, OGDC, and EFERT made positive contributions, adding a total of 167 points.
BR Automobile Assembler Index declined by 278.46 points or 1.57 percent to close at 17,407.92 points with total turnover of 27.844 million shares.
BR Cement Index decreased by 115.66 points or 1.58 percent to close at 7,182.18 points with 34.071 million shares.
BR Commercial Banks Index increased by 141.63 points or 0.75 percent to close at 18,948.17 points with 55.951 million shares.
BR Power Generation and Distribution Index added 113.92 points or 0.72 percent to close at 15,986.77 points with 130.626 million shares.
BR Oil and Gas Index inched up by 22.09 points or 0.34 percent to close at 6,586.42 points with 48.282 million shares.
BR Tech. & Comm. Index gained 23.18 points or 0.59 percent to close at 3,947.88 points with 164.731 million shares.
Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corporation said stocks closed under pressure on institutional profit-taking in selected overbought scrips and adjustments in the earning season.
He said weak global crude oil prices, weak rupee, Government structural reforms for IMF new program likely to withdraw subsidies in energy, fertilizer and gas sectors and expectations over status quo in the SBP policy announcement next week played a catalyst role in negative close.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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