KARACHI
The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) failed on Thursday to keep momentum gained a day earlier amid a range-bound and low volume session, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index shedding 106.62 points (-0.23 percent) to close at 47,270.76 points.
The market opened on a positive note by gaining 179 points; however, profit-taking prevailed that brought the index down.
The KSE-100 Index moved in a range of 380.9 points, showing an intraday high of 47,555.9 points and an intraday low of 47,175 points.
Among other indices, the KSE All Share Index shed 96.95 points (-0.3 percent) to close at 32,305.24 points, while All Share Islamic Index shed 60.69 points (-0.26 percent) to close at 23,153.97 points.
A total of 364 companies traded shares in the stock exchange, out of them shares of 92 closed up, shares of 251 closed down while shares of 21 companies remained unchanged. Out of the 99 companies which traded shares in the KSE-100 Index, shares of 24 closed up, 68 closed down, while shares of seven companies remained unchanged.
The overall market volumes decreased by 152.47 million to 230.17 million shares. Total volume traded for the KSE-100 Index was 93.99 million shares. The number of total trades decreased by 32,749 to 105,580; and the value traded decreased by Rs4.16 billion to Rs11.55 billion. Likewise, the market capitalisation decreased by Rs24.88 billion.
Among scrips, TRG realized total volumes of 19.2 million shares, followed by GGL (15 million) and WTL (11.8 million). Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include TRG, GGL, WTL, TPLP and BYCO, which formed 29 per cent of total volumes.
Sector wise, the index was let down by oil & gas marketing companies with 29 points, power generation & distribution with 21 points, oil & gas exploration companies with 19 points, pharmaceuticals with 16 points and fertilizer with 15 points. The most points taken off the index were by HUBC which stripped the index of 20 points followed by PSO with 17 points, PPL with 14 points, EFERT with 13 points and LUCK with 12 points.
The sectors propping up the index were commercial banks with 46 points, technology & communication with 40 points, and synthetic & rayon, miscellaneous, and glass & ceramics with one point each. The most points added to the index were by MEBL which contributed 42 points followed by TRG with 40 points, BAHL with 14 points, MLCF with 12 points and HBL with 8 points.
Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that after posting an uptick on Wednesday, the index again traded range-bound between +179 points and -202 points. They said that the market was poised for a clear trigger in disregard to the announcement of infrastructure projects by the Prime Minister Imran Khan, which could have impacted stock prices of listed cement and steel sectors.
They said that profit booking was observed across the board except for some blue chip stocks, with nominal price gains. Ongoing earnings season has so far turned out to show muted response from investors, especially with respect to earnings of Attock Group where the pertinent stocks gave nominal and temporary upside.
During the session, MEBL and AKBL announced their financial results as per which the former posted 11.39 percent increase in half-year net profits while the latter reported 17 percent decline on a year-on-year basis in profitability.
