The benchmark KSE-100 Index to close at 45,684.8 points
KARACHI
The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) turned bearish in a low-volume session on Wednesday, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index shedding 46.9 points (-0.1 percent) to close at 45,684.8 points.
The market opened on a positive note and switched between the green and red territories for the first two-and-a-half hours session; however, it remained in the negative territory for the rest of the session, closing in the red. The negative sentiments stemmed from the speculations regarding hike in inflation owing to increase in prices of petroleum products, which kept the market down. Moreover, investors remained cautious due to uncertainty in domestic politics and concerns over Russia-Ukraine tension.
The KSE-100 Index moved in a range of 300.7 points, showing an intraday high of 45,904.63 points and a low of 45,603.93 points. Among other indices, the KSE All Share Index shed 26.03 points (-0.08 percent) to close at 31,308.52 points, while KMI All Share Islamic Index shed 37.96 points (-0.17 percent) to close at 22,595.33 points.
A total of 366 companies traded shares in the stock exchange, out of them shares of 147 closed up, shares of 193 closed down while shares of 26 companies remained unchanged. Out of 92 traded companies in the KSE-100 Index, 34 closed up, 53 closed down and five remained unchanged.
The overall market volumes decreased by 129.27 million to 145.31 million shares. Total volumes traded for the KSE-100 Index decreased by 20.05 million to 78.14 million shares. The number of total trades decreased by 37,690 to 64,102, while the value traded decreased by Rs2.62 billion to Rs4.14 billion. Overall, market capitalisation decreased by Rs6.77 billion.
Among scrips, KEL topped the volumes with 23.65 million shares, followed by WTL (17.06 million) and FABL (10.14 million). Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes included KEL, WTL, FABL, HUMNL and BOP, which formed over 44 percent of total volumes.
In terms of rupee, NESTLE remained the top gainer and witnessed an increase of Rs99.9 (1.78 percent) per share, closing at Rs5,700, whereas the runner-up was PRET, the share price of which climbed up by Rs54.01 (7.4 percent) to Rs784. RMPL remained the top loser in terms of rupee and witnessed a decrease of Rs505 (4.85 percent) per share, closing at Rs9,9003, followed by AWTX, the share price of which declined by Rs149.2 (7.5 percent) to close at Rs1,840.23 per share.
The sectors taking the index towards south were commercial banks with 28 points, cement (28 points), oil & gas marketing companies (12 points), oil & gas exploration companies (6 points) and sugar & allied industries (4 points). The most points taken off the index were by HMB which stripped the index of 15 points followed by HBL and LUCK (11 points each), AKBL (8 points) and MLCF (8 points).
The sectors taking the index towards north were textile composite with 11 points, power generation & distribution (10 points), automobile assembler and fertilizer (8 points each), and tobacco (5 points). The most points added to the index were by ENGRO which contributed 11 points followed by MEBL and MTL (9 points each), HUBC (8 points) and POL (6 points).
