The Pakistan Stock Market continues to see bearish sessions for the last couple of days as the KSE-100 benchmark failed to keep itself in the green zone following profit-taking on Wednesday.
According to the PSX website, the benchmark KSE-100 index is trading at 42,015.10 points at around 10:30 am as shares saw another sluggish day. The stock market closed 42,007.14 points on Wednesday after an intraday high of 42,191.76 points.
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The Pakistan Stock Exchange closed in the red zone on Wednesday as investors chose to take profits on the available margins. Pressure on the market remained high.
The market traded in the red for the remainder of the session due to little trading activity and the PSX’s bearish opening. Prior to ending at 42,007.14 points, down 148.34 points or 0.35 percent, the benchmark KSE-100 Index reached an intraday high of 42,191.76 points and an intraday low of 41,951.28 points.
Trading volume on the ready counter reduced to 238.657 million shares from Tuesday’s 304.838 million shares traded, while the ready counter’s total daily traded value fell to Rs 7.853 billion from Tuesday’s Rs 9.845 billion, indicating that trading activity remained low.
With total daily trading of 219.216 million shares, the BRIndex100 dropped 24.19 points or 0.57 percent to close at 4,223.08 points.
With a closing value of 16,103.26 points and a total daily trading volume of 179.527 million shares, the BRIndex30 fell by 348.64 points or 2.12 percent. Additionally, foreign investors continued to sell shares totaling $256,992 net. To reach Rs 6.836 trillion, the market capitalization decreased by Rs 12 billion. Out of the 353 active scrips, 204 closed in the negative, 122 in the positive, and 27 stocks had no change in value.
K-Electric led in terms of volume with 34.446 million shares and gained Rs 0.10 to close at Rs 3.06, followed by WorldCall Telecom with 30.541 million shares and a loss of Rs 0.05 to close at Rs 1.51. With 16.271 million shares, Telecard Limited gained by Rs 0.36 to close at Rs 11.66. Sanofi-Aventis and Bhanero Textile were the top losers, decreasing by Rs 85.50 and Rs 84.37 respectively to end at Rs 1,054.50 and Rs 1,040.63. Nestle Pakistan and Reliance Cotton were the top gainers, growing by Rs 200.00 and Rs 36.00 respectively to close at Rs 5,980.00 and Rs 594.00.
According to an analyst at Arif Habib Limited, the PSX saw a bad session because of low participation, which caused the index to trade in negative territory for most of the trading session. The main board’s volumes remained low, but third-tier stocks continued to dominate the board. The spotlight was still on the IT sector.
Technology (down 218.5 points), Cement (down 39.2 points), Chemical (down 11.6 points), Vanaspati & Allied Industries (down 10.9 points), and E&P are among the sectors that have affected performance (down 7.8 points) With 1.743 million shares changing hands overall, the BR Automobile Assembler Index increased 22.38 points, or 0.25 percent, to close at 9,090.41 points.
With 11.759 million shares, the BR Cement Index dropped 19.6 points, or 0.42 percent, to settle at 4,629.40 points with 5.139 million shares, the BR Commercial Banks Index increased 0.87 points, or 0.01 percent, to close at 8,218.00 points. With 39.172 million shares traded, the BR Power Generation and Distribution Index dropped 20.77 points, or 0.32 percent, to close at 6,404.58 points with 8.536 million shares, the BR Oil and Gas Index gained 23.26 points, or 0.63 percent, to close at 3,725.80 points. With 72.427 million shares, the BR Tech. & Comm. Index fell 106.18 points, or 2.36 percent, to close at 4,395.46 points. According to Waqar Iqbal of JS Global Capital, worries about the geopolitical environment and the economic prospects have kept market sentiment gloomy. The top contributors to the traded volume of 239 million shares were KEL (up 3.4%), WTL (down 3.2%), TELE (up 3.2%), PRL (down 2.2%), and CNERGY (down 2.9%).
