KSE-100 Index lacks lustre: BRIndex100 inches down

Pakistan Stock Exchange Wednesday witnessed a volatile session a day after the announcement of the monetary policy. Investors adopted cautious approach. BRIndex100 lost 2.96 points or 0.09 percent to close at 3,441.67 points. BRIndex100 touched intraday high of 3,497.80 and intraday low of 3,425.07 points. Volumes stood at 108.913 million shares. BRIndex30 closed at 17,663.98 points, down 5.82 points or 0.03 percent with a turnover of 84.755 million shares.
The KSE-100 Index gained 9.97 points to close at 32,981.99 points. Trading activity remained slightly low as daily volumes on the ready counter decreased to 111.558 million shares as compared to 138.726 million shares traded Tuesday.
Foreign investors remained net buyers of shares worth $0.5 million. The market capitalization increased by Rs 7 billion to Rs 6.688 trillion. Out of total 308 active scrips, 146 closed in negative, 145 in positive while the value of 17 stocks remained unchanged.
Maple Leaf was the volume leader with 16.617 million shares. It closed at Rs 21.07 without any change, followed by TRG Pak that lost Re 0.65 to close at Rs 13.64 with 10.814 million shares. Nestle Pakistan and Sapphire Textile were the top gainers with Rs 300.00 and Rs 54.98, respectively to close at Rs 7,100.00 and Rs 1,329.98. Indus Motor Co and Siemens Pak were the top losers with Rs 49.22 and Rs 30.50, respectively to close at Rs 1,117.98 and Rs 579.50.
BR Automobile Assembler Index declined by 115.92 points or 2.12 percent to close at 5,360.79 points with total turnover of 1.040 million shares. BR Cement Index closed at 2,867.40 points, down 0.07 points with 30.009 million shares.
BR Commercial Banks Index gained 25.23 points or 0.32 percent to close at 8,015.50 points with 10.712 million shares. BR Power Generation and Distribution Index inched up by 23.07 points or 0.49 percent to close at 4,706.16 points with 5.008 million shares. BR Oil and Gas Index lost 6.84 points or 0.18 percent to close at 3,762.65 points with 8.567 million shares. BR Tech. & Comm. Index decreased by 8.85 percent or 1.23 percent to close at 710.29 points with 12.294 million shares.
An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the market opened on a positive note and within no time touched the day's high of plus 409 points, post SBP rate hike yesterday of 100bps, in line with street consensus. E&P, O&GMCs, Cement, Chemical, Fertilizer and Banking Sector scrips performed well earlier, however, save for O&GMCs and Chemical, all went bust by session's end. LOTCHEM, SSGC, SNGP, EPCL traded near upper circuits. Cement sector led the volumes table with 30 million shares (contributed by MLCF (16.5 million), DGKC (4.8 million) and FCCL (3.5 million)), followed by Chemical with 15 million shares (contributed by LOTCHEM (8.2 million)).
Sectors contributing to performance include Banks (up 30 points), Power (up 17 points), Food (up 15 points), Chemical (up 14 points), Autos (down 23 points), E&P (down 20 points) and Textile (down 10 points). Stocks that contributed positively include HUBC (up 21 points), HBL (up 19 points), DAWH (up 16 points), NESTLE (up 15 points) and EPCL (up 8 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include OGDC (down 14 points), INDU (down 14 points), FFC (down 14 points), PPL (down 10 points) and NML (down 9 points).