KARACHI
The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed the rollover week on a positive note, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index gaining 28.59 points (+0.07 percent) to close at 43,551.14 points.
The PSX opened on a negative note and hit the day’s low at the opening; however, volumes were very low at that stage. Later, the index remained volatile and after hitting the day’s high within the next two hours, it moved sideways and finally closed in the green.
The market remained lacklustre due to political instability in the country as the parliament’s session has started that will decide on a vote of no-confidence against Prime Minister Imran Khan, most probably during the next week, with both treasury and opposition benches expecting a victory.
On the other hand, the Pakistani rupee plunged to a new low of 181.78 against the US dollar. Moreover, the State Bank of Pakistan reported a day earlier that foreign exchange reserves of the country dropped for the sixth straight week by $843.7 million on a week-on-week basis to reach $21.44 billion. All these factors and a lack of fresh triggers eroded the investors’ confidence and they preferred cash to stocks at the end of the week.
The KSE-100 Index moved in a range of 310.84 points, showing an intraday low of 43,375.51 points and a high of 43,686.35. Among other indices, the KSE All Share Index gained 46.37 points (+0.16 percent) to close at 29,859.99 points, while KMI All Share Islamic Index gained 2.54 points (+0.01 percent) to close at 21,518.32 points.
A total of 342 companies traded shares in the stock exchange, out of them shares of 169 closed up, shares of 144 closed down while shares of 29 companies remained unchanged. Out of 90 traded companies in the KSE-100 Index, 37 closed up and 52 closed down and one remained unchanged.
The overall market volumes increased by 12.15 million to 161.94 million shares. Total volumes traded for the KSE-100 Index increased by 3.91 million to 68.44 million shares. The number of total trades decreased by 10,913 to 71,054, while the value traded decreased by Rs1.49 billion to Rs4.15 billion. Overall, market capitalisation increased by Rs11.43 billion.
Among scrips, WTL topped the volumes with 22.17 million shares, followed by DSL (9.83 million) and CNERGY (9.41 million). Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes included WTL, DSL, CNERGY, TELE, and PIBTL, which formed over 34 percent of total volumes.
In terms of rupee, MEHT remained the top gainer and witnessed an increase of Rs61.15 (7.48 percent) per share, closing at Rs879. The runner-up was SAPT, the share price of which climbed up by Rs48.96 (4.95 percent) to Rs1,038.95. SFL remained the top loser in terms of rupee and witnessed a decrease of Rs72.67 (7.5 percent) per share, closing at Rs896.32, followed by RMPL, the share price of which declined by Rs57 (0.49 percent) to close at Rs11,633 per share.
The sectors taking the index towards north were commercial banks (35 points), fertilizer (28 points), automobile assembler (9 points), refinery (8 points) and investment banks/ investment companies/ securities companies (6 points). The most points added to the index were by LUCK (35 points), HBL (28 points), MEBL (21 points), MTL (13 points) and EFERT (12 points).
The sectors taking the index towards south were oil & gas exploration companies (35 points), technology & communication (20 points), textile composite (9 points), oil & gas marketing companies (7 points) and real estate investment trust (3 points). The most points taken off the index were by SYS (17 points), POL (15 points), UBL (11 points), and CHCC and OGDC (10 points each).
