BRIndex100 flat

RECORDER REPORT

KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Thursday witnessed a volatile session with low volumes due to investors' lack of interest.

BRIndex100 lost 3.04 points or 0.07 percent to close at 4,398.55 points. BRIndex100 touched intraday high of 4,410.45 and intraday low of 4,354.00 points. Volumes stood at 146.919 million shares.

BRIndex30 declined by 98.73 points or 0.43 percent to close at 22,985.13 points with a turnover of 99.935 million shares.

The KSE-100 Index closed at 41,903.50 points, marginally up by 4.80 points. Trading activity remained thin as daily volumes on the ready counter decreased to 162.237 million shares as compared to 197.137 million shares traded Wednesday.

Foreign investors remained net sellers of shares worth $1.8 million. The market capitalization declined by Rs 3 billion to Rs 7.868 trillion. Out of total 349 active scrips, 193 closed in positive, 136 in negative while the value of 20 stocks remained unchanged.

Bank of Punjab was the volume leader with 17.965 million shares. It gained Re 0.23 to close at Rs 13.45 followed by Avanceon Limited that increased by Rs 2.10 to close at Rs 40.45 with 15.944 million shares.

Sapphire Textile and Bata Pak were the top gainers with Rs 45.10 and Rs 34.98, respectively to close at Rs 865.11 and Rs 1,934.99. Colgate Palmolive and Rafhan Maize were the top losers with Rs 143.00 and Rs 95.00, respectively to close at Rs 2,457.00 and Rs 6,900.00.

BR Automobile Assembler Index gained 11.51 points or 0.19 percent to close at 6,157.97 points with total turnover of 951,080 shares.

BR Cement Index increased by 48.74 points or 1.25 percent to close at 3,936.66 points with 20.486 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index decreased by 34.66 points or 0.35 percent to close at 9,928.90 points with 26.902 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index declined by 48.38 points or 0.85 percent to close at 5,647.09 points with 5.998 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index lost 31.74 points or 0.65 percent to close at 4,839.21 points with 15.424 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 1,033.93 points, up 20.46 points or 2.02 percent with 32.259 million shares.

An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the market dipped again by 351 points during the session, but staged a recovery and closed the session plus 5 points. LUCK's result at the opening bell, brought some relief to the sellers in past couple of sessions. Cement sector largely traded positive, same as Fertilizer sector stocks.

Oil chain and Banking sector again faced selling pressure almost across the board. Technology sector led the volumes with 32.2 million shares, followed by Banks (26.9 million shares) and Cement (20.5 million shares).

Sectors contributing to the performance include E&P (down 52 points), Banks (down 44 points), Power (down 26 points), Chemical (down 18 points), Inv Banks (up 54 points), Cement (up 37 points) and Fertilizer (up 22 points).

Stocks that contributed positively include DAWH (up 54 points), LUCK (up 32 points), ENGRO (up 26 points), HBL (up 13 points) and SYS (up 11 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include HUBC (down 30 points), MCB (down 23 points), UBL (down 20 points), COLG (down 18 points) and BAHL (down 17 points).