BRIndex100 little changed

RECORDER REPORT

KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Wednesday managed to close on a positive note on the back of select buying, mainly by local investors.

BRIndex100 gained 2.19 points or 0.06 percent to close at 3,531.73 points. BRIndex-100 touched intraday high of 3,540.84 and intraday low of 3,508.83 points. Volumes stood at 223.073 million shares.

BRIndex30 increased by 62.18 points or 0.34 percent to close at 18,571.41 points with a turnover of 166.608 million shares.

The KSE-100 Index inched up by 47.12 points or 0.14 percent to close at 33,523.74 points. Daily trading volumes on the ready counter stood at 237.676 million shares as compared to 243.025 million shares traded Tuesday.

Foreign investors remained net sellers of shares worth $2.6 million. The market capitalization increased by Rs 10 billion to Rs 6.608 trillion. Out of total 379 active scrips, 202 closed in positive, 152 in negative while the value of 25 stocks remained unchanged.

Lotte Chemical was the volume leader with 27.067 million shares. It increased by Re 1.00 to close at Rs 15.48 followed by Unity Foods that gained Re 0.47 to close at Rs 10.95 with 26.068 million shares. Bata Pak and Mari Petroleum were the top gainers with Rs 74.50 and Rs 45.61, respectively to close at Rs 1,618.00 and Rs 1,058.15. Unilever Foods and Colgate Palmolive were the top losers with Rs 249.00 and Rs 38.35, respectively to close at Rs 5,551.00 and Rs 1,775.01.

BR Automobile Assembler Index decreased by 37.15 points or 0.74 percent to close at 4,971.96 points with a total turnover of 2.002 million shares.

BR Cement Index declined by 62.44 points or 2.08 percent to close at 2,932.52 points with 26.832 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index gained 10.52 points or 0.13 percent to close at 7,935.62 points with 22.436 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index increased by 25.27 points or 0.55 percent to close at 4,629.84 points with 11.044 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index closed at 3,840.09 points, up 16.79 points or 0.44 percent with 14.496 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index inched up 5.02 points or 0.7 percent to close at 726.48 points with 11.235 million shares.

An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the market continued trading in a narrow band between plus 128 points and minus 137 points and closed the session up 47 points. Chemical sector contributed positively to the index, whereby LOTCHEM, EPCL, DOL hit upper circuits due to better expectation of financial results of the outgoing quarter. Besides, buying activity was also observed in O&GMCs and small cap banks.

The index braced selling pressure largely from Steel and Cement sectors, which are the subject of profit booking and have shown decent price growth since recent lows. Chemical sector topped the volumes with 48.7 million shares, followed by Cement (26.8 million shares) and Vanaspati (26.1 million shares).

Sectors contributing to the performance include Pharma (up 28 points), E&P (up 23 points), Banks (up 17 points), Power (up 16 points), Chemical (up 10 points) and Cement (down 48 points).

Stocks that contributed positively include HUBC (up 27 points), MARI (up 24 points), HBL (up 18 points), UBL (up 14 points) and POL (up 13 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include LUCK (down 23 points), MCB (down 17 points), DGKC (down 14 points), OGDC (down 12 points) and NBP (down 12 points).