The benchmark KSE-100 Index close at 45,736.26 points
KARACHI
The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed almost flat on Monday amid profit-taking activity in a volatile session, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index shedding 12.89 points (-0.03 percent) to close at 45,736.26 points.
The market opened on a negative note but gained around 230 points during the first hour of the session, but later it remained in the red territory throughout the session.
The KSE-100 Index moved in a range of 365.97 points, showing an intraday high of 45,910.96 points and a low of 45,544.99 points. Among other indices, the KSE All Share Index shed 45 points (-0.14 percent) to close at 31,180.51 points, while All Share Islamic Index shed 40.77 points (-0.18 percent) to close at 22,118.21 points.
A total of 376 companies traded shares in the stock exchange, out of them shares of 129 closed up, shares of 216 closed down while shares of 31 companies remained unchanged. Out of 94 traded companies in the KSE-100 Index, 41 closed up, 50 closed down and three remained unchanged.
The overall market volumes decreased by 19.62 million to 172.85 million. Total volumes traded for the KSE-100 Index were 57.50 million shares. The number of total trades decreased by 15,251 to 73,079, while the value traded decreased by Rs2.53 billion to Rs5.14 billion. Overall market capitalisation decreased by Rs11.27 billion.
Among scrips, HASCOL topped the volumes with 18.58 million shares, followed by GGL (17.84 million) and WTL (11.22 million). Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include HASCOL, GGL, WTL, UNITY and FFLR1, which formed around 37 percent of total volumes.
Sector wise, the index was let down by cement with 30 points, food & personal care products with 25 points, investment banks/ investment companies/ securities companies with 18 points, oil & gas marketing companies with 17 points and power generation & distribution with 11 points. The most points taken off the index were by LUCK which stripped the index of 25 points followed by TRG with 23 points, MCB with 21 points, UNITY with 19 points and SEARL with 12 points.
The sectors propping up the index were fertilizer with 56 points, technology & communication with 16 points, oil & gas exploration companies with 15 points, commercial banks with 13 points and paper & board with 11 points. The most points added to the index were by SYS which contributed 43 points followed by HBL with 27 points, ENGRO with 22 points, UBL with 20 points and FFC with 19 points.
According to Pearl Securities, domestic equities witnessed profit taking as talks between Pakistan and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have not ended yet, which is exerting pressure at the bourse. Moreover, investors’ interest was low during the session amid expected hike in the upcoming announcement of the Monetary policy as well as continuous depreciation in Pakistani rupee. Furthermore, to contain the monetary expansion and moderate domestic demand, the SBP announced an increase in average cash reserve requirement (CRR) for banks from 5 percent to 6 percent.
