Daily Times

Stocks staged a sharp recovery at Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), paring almost all of the intraday losses by the closing bell on Thursday as investors reacted to series of positive news flow during the day. However, the index still closed in red, posting a loss of five points and clocked at 47,312 level.

On Thursday the index opened on a negative note where it lost 363 points on the concerns that the government is mulling over strict measures including imposing a lockdown as Covid positivity ratio has reached 30pc in the business hub of the country – Karachi.

However, the market recovered its losses in the second half after investors cheered Asad Umar’s announcement that imposing complete lockdown is not an option to control the Covid situation in the country.

While the selling pressure was primarily witnessed in index heavy weights, Banks, Exploration and Production, Cement, Power and Technology sectors on lockdown concern as well as rollover positions, investors preferred selling in the ready market and bought futures, a report by Arif Habib Limited said.

The Index traded in a range of 419.48 points or 0.89 percent of previous close, showing an intraday high of 47,374.57 and a low of 46,955.09.

The volume at KSE-100 slightly rose from 128 million shares recorded in the previous session to 156 million shares, while the all-share index recorded a volume of 376 million shares, upfrom 365 million shares from the previous session.

Worldcall Telecom Limited, Byco Petroleum and Unity Foods led the volume table. The scrips exchanged 50.15 million, 47.1 million and 16.14 million worth of equity respectively.

Sectors which dented the index were Commercial Banks with 40 points, Textile Composite with nine points, Power Generation and Distribution with nine points, Food & Personal Care Products with eight points and Automobile Assembler with six points.

Among the scrips, the most points taken off the index was by Habib Bank Limited which stripped the index of 32 points followed by United Bank Limited with nine points, HCAR with nine points, Azgard Nine Limited with six points and Pak Suzuki Motor Company Limited with five points.

However, sectors which lifted the index were Chemical with 19 points, Refinery with 12 points, Automobile Parts & Accessories with 12 points, Fertiliser with 12 points and Investment Banks with 11 points.

The most points added to the index was by Thal Limited which contributed 13 points followed by Engro Fertilizers Limited with 12 points, Lucky Cement with 11 points, Dawood Hercules Corporation Limited with nine points and ICI Pakistan Limited with eight points.