BRIndex100 rangebound

Pakistan Stock Exchange Friday witnessed a rangebound session due to investors'' lack of interest. BRIndex100 closed at 4,294.82 points, up only 0.33 points or 0.01 percent. BRIndex100 touched intraday high of 4,308.11 and intraday low of 4,275.18 points. Volumes stood at 95.464 million shares. BRIndex30 gained 18.94 points or 0.09 percent to close at 21,289.11 points with a turnover of 74.364 million shares.
The benchmark KSE-100 index lost 17.80 points to close at 40,248.41 points. Daily trading volumes slightly increased to 106.330 million shares as compared to 101.839 million shares traded Thursday. The market capitalization decreased by Rs 1.0 billion to Rs 8.356 trillion. Out of total 342 active scrips, 168 closed in negative, 160 in positive while the value of 14 stocks remained unchanged.
K-Electric was the volume leader with 25.963 million shares. It gained Re 0.34 to close at Rs 6.01 followed by Azgard Nine that increased by Re 0.48 to close at Rs 15.32 with 9.524 million shares. Unilever Foods and Pak Tobacco were the top gainers with Rs 345.00 and Rs 75.75, respectively to close at 7,245.00 and Rs 1,590.75. Nestle Pakistan and Bata Pak were the top losers with Rs 549.99 and Rs 125.00, respectively to close at Rs 10,450.00 and Rs 2,375.00.
BR Commercial Banks Index decreased by 62.62 points or 0.81 percent to close at 7,640.12 points with total turnover of 8.753 million shares. BR Cement Index lost 25.62 points or 0.5 percent to close at 5,066.03 points with total volumes of 6.608 million shares. BR Oil and Gas Index closed at 5,112.46, up 1.03 points or 0.02 percent with 4.183 million shares.
BR Tech. & Comm. Index lost 0.45 points or 0.04 percent to close at 1,174.18 points with 7.762 million shares. BR Power Generation and Distribution Index increased by 208.7 points or 3.37 percent to close at 6,398.36 points with total turnover of 27.760 million shares.
Maaz Mulla at JS Global Capital said that range bound session was witnessed at the local bourse as the KSE-100 index traded between an intraday high of plus 102 points and an intraday low of minus 183 points. Most of the selling pressure was witnessed during the first half of the day due to the last day of the rollover week, which pulled the market down to close at 40,248 level, down 18 points.
KEL (down 6 percent) led the market as 26 million shares of the power stock changed hands on back of the news that NEPRA is to hear reconsideration request filed by Government of Pakistan for Multi-Year Tariff of K-Electric on December 05, 2017. Mixed sentiments were observed in the Banking sector on anticipation of unchanged policy rate in the upcoming announcement of monetary policy. Key stock such as UBL (down 1.81 percent), NBP (down 0.80 percent) and HBL (down 0.47 percent) closed in red while BAFL (up 0.25 percent) and FABL (up 0.43 percent) closed in the green zone.