Daily Times

The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) turned bearish on Thursday, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index shedding 153.05 points (-0.33 percent) to close at 45,763.2 points.

The market faced resistance for the third day in a row soon after crossing the 46,000 points level. The market failed to maintain this psychological level after the first 15 minutes trading, and remained bearish for the rest of the session.

The KSE-100 Index moved in a range of 309.03 points, showing an intraday low of 45,693.80 points and a high of 46,002.77 points. Among other indices, the KSE All Share Index shed 117.75 points (-0.38 percent) to close at 31,270.84 points, while KMI All Share Islamic Index shed 60.13 points (-0.27 percent) to close at 22,481.52 points.

A total of 362 companies traded shares in the stock exchange, out of them shares of 138 closed up, shares of 202 closed down while shares of 22 companies remained unchanged. Out of 90 traded companies in the KSE-100 Index, 31 closed up, 58 closed down and one remained unchanged.

The overall market volumes decreased by 186.78 million to 327.60 million shares. Total volumes traded for the KSE-100 Index increased by 5.20 million to 130.51 million shares. The number of total trades decreased by 43,645 to 104,181, while the value traded decreased by Rs4.12 billion to Rs6.48 billion.

Among scrips, CNERGY topped the volumes with 74.08 million shares, followed by WTL (47.81 million) and HASCOL (23.4 million). Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes included CNERGY, WTL, HASCOL, UNITYR3, and TRG, which formed around 52 percent of total volumes.

In terms of rupee, UPFL remained the top gainer for the second straight day and witnessed an increase of Rs175 per share, closing at Rs20,324 whereas the runner-up was SAPT, the share price of which climbed up by Rs64.51 to Rs924.71. NESTLE remained the top loser in terms of rupee for the second straight day and witnessed a decrease of Rs110.06 per share, closing at Rs5,400, followed by PAKT, the share price of which declined by Rs47.12 to close at Rs1,106.33 per share.

According to experts, it is the accumulation phase and the market is set to take off. They said that the market is taking correction after getting around 3,000 points during the recent rally which has been continuing for the last two weeks.

They said that resolution of issues related to Diamer Bhasha Dam and proposed construction of high-rise buildings, including Burj Al-Jinnah in Karachi, may benefit the cement sector, which has been struggling for weeks due to rising coal prices and low despatches. They, however, warned that surge in Omicron cases may dent investors’ confidence though the government has recently announced not to impose lockdown.

The PSX on Thursday revealed the criteria for selecting the top 25 companies for the year 2021. The prerequisites for the selection of top companies include: minimum listing history of at least 12 months; a minimum dividend distribution of 30%; the shares of the company should be traded at least 50% of the total trading days of the year; and the company should not be in the defaulters’ segment or trading in its shares should not have been suspended on account of violation of Listing of Companies & Securities Regulations of the Exchange during the year.

Meanwhile, the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited (NCCPL) on Thursday announced that it will collect capital gain tax (CGT) from clearing members and Pakistan Mercantile Exchange (PMX) for the month of November 2021 on January 24, 2022, a notice to Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) said.