KARACHI
Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) extended some gains for the second day in a row in a range-bound session ahead of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting, with the KSE-100 Index gaining 59.13 points (+0.13 percent) to close at 45,650.05 points on Wednesday.
The market witnessed a cautious trading session after it opened on a positive note. The indices mostly remained in the green territory amid range-bound trading activity, as investors awaited the outcome of the MPC meeting which announced its decision after the closing of the bourse. The Pakistani rupee extended gains against the US dollar in the interbank market by around Rs1.07 but the market remained somewhat unaffected, fearing a hike in interest rate in the MPC week on September 14.
The MPC decided to keep the policy rate unchanged at 22 percent, despite the fact that the market was expecting a rate hike by 100-200bps. This is likely to give a boost to the stocks on Friday as the market had already adjusted itself for a rate hike and now a bullish session is expected.
The benchmark index traded in a range of 195.48 points, showing an intraday high of 45,776.96 points and an intraday low of 45,581.48 points. Among other indices, the KSE All Share Index shed 20.39 points (-0.07 percent) to close at 30,406.28 points, while KMI All Share Islamic Index shed 3.55 points (-0.02 percent) to close at 22,087.79 points.
Total volumes traded for the KSE-100 Index increased by 13.97 million shares to 61.39 million shares against 47.42 million shares traded a session earlier. The overall market volumes increased by 35.40 million shares to 138.17 million shares against 102.77 million shares traded a session earlier.
Among scrips, KEL topped the volumes with 18.08 million shares, followed by ASC (18.01 million) and SEARLR2 (16.38 million). Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes included KEL, ASC, SEARLR2, MLCF, and AGL, which formed over 49 percent of total volumes.
A total of 315 companies traded shares in the stock exchange against 297 a session earlier, out of which shares of 148 closed up, shares of 137 closed down while shares of 30 companies remained unchanged. A total of 93 companies traded shares in the KSE-100 Index against 94 a session earlier, out of which share price of 49 companies closed up, 40 closed down and four remained unchanged.
The number of total trades decreased by 2,103 to 67,490 as compared to 69,593 trades recorded in the previous session, while the value traded decreased by Rs1.02 billion to Rs2.78 billion as compared to Rs3.80 billion in the previous session.
In terms of rupee, PRET remained the top gainer and witnessed an increase of Rs26 (+7.38 percent) per share, closing at Rs378.1. The runner-up remained PSEL, the share price of which climbed up by Rs20 (+3.08 percent) to Rs670. AWTX remained the top loser in terms of rupee and witnessed a decrease of Rs110 (-6.59 percent) per share, closing at Rs1,560, followed by NESTLE, the share price of which fell by Rs85 (-1.2 percent) to close at Rs7,015 per share.
The major sectors taking the index towards north remained commercial banks (37 points), miscellaneous (20 points), investment banks/ investment companies/ securities companies (20 points), oil & gas exploration companies (12 points), and textile composite (7 points). The major companies adding points to the index remained DAWH (22 points), HMB (15 points), BAHL and PSEL (11 points each), and MTL (9 points).
The sectors taking the index towards south were tobacco (10 points), paper & board and cement (9 points each), food & personal care products (8 points), and oil & gas marketing companies (6 points). The major companies depriving the index of points remained NESTLE (11 points), PKGS and PAKT (10 points each), CHCC (8 points), and LUCK (7 points).
