Daily Times

The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) managed to close in green in a range-bound session on Monday, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index gaining 47.94 points (+0.11 percent) to close at 43,280.77 points.

The market opened on a positive note but remained volatile throughout the session. The buyers were seen active in the last one hour trading; however, volumes remained low due to lack of fresh triggers. The investors welcomed the arrival of a $3 billion deposit from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which is likely to give some support to the depreciating rupee and appreciation of the local currency against the greenback during the session supported this view.

The KSE-100 Index moved in a range of 584.25 points, showing an intraday high of 43,556.27 points and a low of 42,972.02 points. Among other indices, the KSE All Share Index gained 9.87 points (+0.03 percent) to close at 29,620.88 points, while KMI All Share Islamic Index gained 93.36 points (+0.45 percent) to close at 21,028.36 points.

A total of 330 companies traded shares in the stock exchange, out of them shares of 127 closed up, shares of 184 closed down while shares of 19 companies remained unchanged. Out of 91 traded companies in the KSE-100 Index, 36 closed up, 51 closed down and four remained unchanged.

The overall market volumes decreased by 110.82 million to 176.91 million shares. Total volumes traded for the KSE-100 Index decreased by 65.27 million shares to 74.06 million shares. The number of total trades decreased by 29,058 to 90,039, while the value traded decreased by Rs4.20 billion to Rs6.08 billion. Overall market capitalisation increased by Rs4.25 billion.

Among scrips, WTL topped the volumes with 16.59 million shares, followed by TELE (12.57 million) and TRG (11.19 million). Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include WTL, TELE, TRG, UNITY, and HASCOL, which formed around 34 percent of total volumes.

The major sectors taking the index toward north were oil and gas exploration companies with 124 points, technology and communication with 83 points, power generation and distribution with 26 points, chemical with 10 points and cement with 8 points. The most points added to the index were by PPL which contributed 60 points followed by SYS with 46 points, TRG with 36 points, POL with 32 points and OGDC with 20 points.

The major sectors taking the index toward south were commercial banks with 75 points, fertilizer with 40 points, food and personal care products with 24 points, textile composite with 17 points and engineering with 13 points. The most points taken off the index were by UBL which stripped the index of 35 points followed by HBL with 32 points, ENGRO with 19 points, NML with 19 points and FFC with 13 points.

According to experts, the market remained volatile as investors lack confidence amid ballooning current account deficit and disappointing inflationary figures. Similarly, a surge in yields of T-bills on Wednesday’s auction signalled further monetary tightening by the State Bank of Pakistan in the forthcoming monetary policy announcement on December 14, 2021.