Daily Times

The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) continued with range-bound trading activity for the fourth consecutive day on Thursday, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index gaining 61.84 points (+0.13 percent) to close at 48,962.54 points.

The market opened on a positive note and remained positive for most of the session with the KSE-100 Index oscillating both ways, and finally concluded in the green zone. The KSE-100 Index traded in a range of 220.9 points, showing an intraday high of 48,118.2 points and a low of 47,897.3 points.

Among other indices, the KSE All Share Index gained 18.63 points (+0.06 percent) to close at 32,726.18 points, while All Share Islamic Index gained 4.65 points (-0.02 percent) to close at 23,529.24 points.

A total of 392 companies traded shares in the stock exchange, out of them shares of 189 closed up, shares of 176 closed down while shares of 27 companies remained unchanged.

The overall market volumes increased by 19.72 million to 638.84 million shares. The number of total trades increased by 4,368 to 165,105, while value traded decreased by Rs2.27 billion to Rs16.38 billion. The overall market capitalisation increased by Rs4.76 billion.

Among scrips, WTL led the table with 97.4 million shares, followed by PACE (35.6 million) and SILK (33.7 million). Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include WTL, PACE, SILK, TPL and GGGL, which formed 34 per cent of total volumes.

The sectors propping up the index were power generation & distribution with 32 points, commercial banks with 24 points, cement with 16 points, investment banks/ investment companies/ securities companies with 15 points and oil & gas marketing companies with 13 points. The most points added to the index were by HUBC which contributed 27 points followed by UBL with 21 points, DAWH with 10 points, GLAXO with 10 points and HBL with 9 points.

Sector wise, the index was let down by technology & communication with 25 points, refinery with 11 points, paper & board with 5 points, food & personal care products with 4 points and textile composite with 4 points. The most points taken off the index were by TRG which stripped the index of 32 points followed by MCB with 11 points, ENGRO with 6 points, NRL with 5 points and BAFL with 5 points.

Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the market continued trading in a narrow range, whereby investors kept booking profit post budget announcement and especially in the roll-over week.

They said that market remained range bound as the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) plenary session has kick-started and Pakistan’s case will be taken up by Friday which created ambiguity among investors. Further, a strike call from APOTCA for the indefinite time, also dented investors’ sentiments slightly, they added.