BRIndex100 ends flat

RECORDER REPORT

KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Thursday opened on strong positive note, however profit taking in various stocks at the fag end minimized its intraday gains.

BRIndex100 inched up by 1.02 points or 0.02 percent to close at 4,374.80 points, up only 1.02 points or 0.02 percent. During the session, the BRIndex100 hit intraday high of 4,418.65 and intraday low of 4,372.23 points. Total volumes stood at 380.536 million shares.

BRIndex30 closed at 22,114.52 points, down 44.35 points or 0.2 percent with total daily turnover of 234.258 million shares.

The KSE-100 Index gained 20.34 points or 0.05 percent and closed at 42,047.72 points. Daily trading volumes on ready counter decreased to 420.324 million shares as compared to 476.871 million shares traded Wednesday.

Foreign investors however remained net buyers of equities worth $6.583 million. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 3 billion to Rs 7.698 trillion. Out of total 400 active scrips, 215 closed in negative and 171 in positive while the value of 14 stocks remained unchanged.

TRG Pak was the volume leader with 35.238 million shares however declined by Rs 1.18 to close at Rs 70.07 followed by Maple Leaf that gained Rs 0.40 to close at Rs 40.57 with 30.968 million shares. Rafhan Maize and Indus Dyeing were the top gainers increasing by Rs 300.00 and Rs 37.48 respectively to close at Rs 8900.00 and Rs 537.49 while Sapphire Textile and Colgate Palmolive were the top losers declining by Rs 67.90 and Rs 50.00 respectively to close at Rs 985.10 and Rs 2900.00.

BR Automobile Assembler Index lost 24.27 points or 0.29 percent to close at 8,402.37 points with total turnover of 7.224 million shares.

BR Cement Index gained 16.75 points or 0.28 percent to close at 5,995.53 points with 51.300 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index inched up by 3.35 points or 0.04 percent to close at 8,647.37 points with 16.953 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index decreased by 10.69 points or 0.21 percent to close at 5,071.70 points with 11.309 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index closed at 3,927.97 points, up 8.07 points or 0.21 percent with 39.270 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index increased by 17.72 points or 0.8 percent to close at 2,239.45 points with 62.662 million shares.

An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the market traded range bound after a gradual yet sketchy run up from 39500 level till now, which has resulted in an addition of 2500 points however, investors still seem perplexed for reasons of rising cases of Corona and potential negative impact of lockdown.

International crude prices also traded direction less for want of an impending decision by OPEC+ regarding crude output. Resultantly, E&P stocks also traded range bound without much excitement. Cement and Steel sectors saw cautious buying activity, however, selling pressure kept the increase in prices in check.

Sectors contributing to the performance include Power (down 7 points), Pharma (down 4 points), E&P (down 2 points), Autos (up 8 points), Cement (up 7 points) and Fertilizer (up 5 points).

Stocks that contributed positively to the index include SYS (up 27 points), LUCK (up 17 points), MCB (up 15 points), FFC (up 15 points) and PSO (up 12 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include TRG (down 12 points), MTL (down 12 points), SEARL (down 11 points), HBL (down 8 points) and COLG (down 7 points).