KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Thursday witnessed a mixed trend, however fresh buying in certain scrips at the fag end supported the market to close on a positive note. The benchmark KSE-100 index closed at 44,266.91 points, up 91.94 points or 0.21 percent. Trading activity also improved as daily volumes on the ready counter increased to 240.428 million shares as compared to 151.787 million shares traded Wednesday.

BRIndex100 gained 23.33 points or 0.51 percent to close at 4,568.62 points with total daily turnover of 192.687 million shares.

BRIndex30 increased by 368.61 points or 1.93 percent to close at 19,463.53 points with total daily trading volumes of 139.138 million shares.

Foreign investors however remained net buyers of shares worth $311,227. Total market capitalization increased by Rs 7 billion to Rs 7.582 trillion. Out of total 357 active scrips, 199 closed in positive and 135 in negative while the value of 23 stocks remained unchanged.

Hum Network was the volume leader with 48.719 million shares and gained Rs 0.66 to close at Rs 6.88 followed by TRG Pak that increased by Rs 6.82 to close at Rs 124.35 with 19.926 million shares.

Sanofi-Aventis and Premium Textile were the top gainers increasing by Rs 49.24 and Rs 35.00 respectively to close at Rs 705.88 and Rs 640.00 while Sapphire Fiber and Mehmood Textile were the top losers declining by Rs 57.31 and Rs 49.25, respectively to close at Rs 812.10 and Rs 607.50.

An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the market continued to remain range-bound due to the ambiguity over mini-budget. The market opened in the green zone as SBP raised Rs 158 billion through PIBs, hefty participation indicating yields to stay at the same level in the near future. The market battled between the bulls and bears throughout the day due to lack of any key positive trigger.

Main board volumes remained dull whereas activity continued to move side-ways as market witnessed hefty volumes in the 3rd tier stocks.

Sectors contributing to the performance include Technology and Communication (up 69.2 points), Inv Banks/Inv Cos/Security Cos. (up 12.3 points), Cement (up 11.6 points) Vanaspati and Allied Industries (up 6.5 points) and Power Generation and Distribution (up 4.91 points).

BR Automobile Assembler Index lost 27.05 points or 0.32 percent to close at 8,551.07 points with total turnover of 2.816 million shares.

BR Cement Index gained 11.54 points or 0.2 percent to close at 5,710.46 points with 5.627 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index fell by 9.84 points or 0.1 percent to close at 9,695.70 points with 24.520 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index inched up by 28.98 points or 0.52 percent to close at 5,569.87 points with 9.615 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index closed at 3,768.23 points, down 0.48 points or 0.01 percent with 7.137 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index increased by 97.25 points or 2.36 percent to close at 4,220.79 points with 91.896 million shares.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021