KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Wednesday witnessed a rangebound session and after moving both sides. closed on slightly negative note with low volumes due to rollover week.
The market opened on positive note but failed to sustain this momentum and in the last trading hour profit-taking was observed which led the index to close in the red zone.
The benchmark KSE-100 Index hit 43,685.00 points intraday high and 43,302.61 points intraday low level before closing at 43,337.97 points, down 28.80 points or 0.07 percent.
Trading activity remained thin as total daily volumes on ready counter decreased to 256.479 million shares as compared to 324.443 million shares traded on Tuesday while total daily traded value on ready counter declined to Rs 8.747 billion against previous day’s Rs 9.655 billion.
BRIndex100 closed at 4,353.65 points, up 3.24 points or 0.07 percent with total daily turnover of 210.389 million shares.
BRIndex30 lost 63.95 points or 0.4 percent to close at 15,852.00 points with total daily trading volumes of 121.307 million shares.
Foreign investors also remained net sellers of shares worth $1.775 million. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 14 billion to Rs 7.197 trillion. Out of total 342 active scrips, 184 closed in negative and 129 in positive while the value of 29 stocks remained unchanged.
Hascol Petroleum was the volume leader with 27.016 million shares however lost Rs 0.12 to close at Rs 6.82 followed by K-Electric that gained Rs 0.05 to close at Rs 3.45 with 20.811 million shares. P.I.A.C. (A) closed at Rs 5.35, up Rs 0.41 with 13.489 million shares.
Reliance Cotton and Systems Limited were the top gainers increasing by Rs 34.00 and Rs 10.94 respectively to close at Rs 494.00 and Rs 391.12 while Nestle Pakistan and Pak Services were the top losers declining by Rs 127.00 and Rs 75.00 respectively to close at Rs 6,070.00 and Rs 1,100.00.
“A roller-coaster ride was witnessed in the trading session,” Mubashir Anis Naviwala at JS Global Capital said.
The index eventually closed at 43,338, losing 29 points. Total volume traded was recorded at 256 million shares where HASCOL (down 1.7 percent), KEL (up 1.5 percent), PIAA (up 8.3 percent), BAFL (up 1.1 percent) and TPLP (up 0.2 percent) were the major contributors.
BR Automobile Assembler Index lost 15.02 points or 0.15 percent to close at 9,712.95 points with total turnover of 1.964 million shares. BR Cement Index declined by 72.81 points or 1.62 percent to close at 4,430.29 points with 9.482 million shares.
BR Commercial Banks Index inched up by 23.29 points or 0.26 percent to close at 9,134.83 points with 32.011 million shares.
BR Power Generation and Distribution Index surged by 71.36 points or 1.19 percent to close at 6,081.93 points with 37.505 million shares.
BR Oil and Gas Index fell by 13.29 points or 0.33 percent to close at 4,024.82 points with 32.047 million shares.
BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 3,872.46 points, up 53.33 points or 1.4 percent with 42.715 million shares.
An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that a rangebound session was observed in the market due to rollover week. The benchmark KSE-100 Index opened in the positive zone but sluggish activity was witnessed throughout the day. In the last trading hour profit taking was observed which led the index to close in the red zone. Volumes remained dry in the main board although healthy volumes were witnessed in the 3rd tier stocks.
Sectors contributing to the performance include Cement (down 43.8 points), Misc. (down 43.5 points), Inv. Banks (down 19.1 points), Textile Composite (down 12.2 points) and E&P (down 12.1 points).
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022