Daily Times

The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed a volatile session amid surging oil and commodity prices globally due to Russia-Ukraine war, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index gaining 11.60 points (+0.03 percent) to close at 44,525.72 points.

The PSX opened on a positive note but remained volatile throughout the session. The international crude oil and cement prices remained on an upward slide due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, which dented the investors’ confidence and the indices moved both ways amid mixed trading activities. The cement sector stayed in the red zone due to mounting coal prices.

The market witnessed some recovery during the last half-an-hour trading that eroded all the losses of the day and helped the indices close in green. Value buying was observed mainly in the oil and gas exploration and production sector in the last trading hour. Moreover, the trade deficit declined for the third consecutive month in February, clocking in at $3.1 billion compared to a deficit of $3.4 billion in the previous month, which also improved overall market sentiment.

The KSE-100 Index moved in a range of 393.94 points, showing an intraday low of 44,311.80 points and a high of 44,705.74 points. Among other indices, the KSE All Share Index shed 23.81 points (-0.08 percent) to close at 30,703.25 points, while KMI All Share Islamic Index gained 46.76 points (+0.21 percent) to close at 22,310.96 points.

A total of 364 companies traded shares in the stock exchange, out of them shares of 117 closed up, shares of 214 closed down while shares of 33 companies remained unchanged. Out of 95 traded companies in the KSE-100 Index, 26 closed up and 63 closed down and six remained unchanged.

The overall market volumes decreased by 46.37 million to 188.67 million shares. Total volumes traded for the KSE-100 Index decreased by 6.88 million to 107.74 million shares. The number of total trades decreased by 21,524 to 99,935, while the value traded decreased by Rs1.98 billion to Rs7.36 billion. Overall, market capitalisation decreased by Rs6.65 billion.

Among scrips, TRG topped the volumes for the second straight day with 15.14 million shares, followed by OGDC (11.66 million) and FCCL (8.87 million). Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes included TRG, OGDC, FCCL, FlyingR1 and KEL, which formed over 27 percent of total volumes.

In terms of rupee, RMPL remained the top gainer and witnessed an increase of Rs200 (1.77 percent) per share, closing at Rs11,500. The share price of RMPL climbed up for the eighth straight session. The runner-up was SAPL, the share price of which climbed up by Rs61 (6.79 percent) to Rs960. NESTLE remained the top loser in terms of rupee and witnessed a decrease of Rs205 (3.57 percent) per share, closing at Rs5,540, followed by SAPT, the share price of which declined by Rs55.9 (5.71 percent) to close at Rs923.03 per share.

The sectors taking the index towards north were oil & gas exploration companies with 132 points, power generation & distribution (22 points), fertilizer (13 points), investment banks/ investment companies/ securities companies (9 points) and automobile assembler (4 points). The most points added to the index were by PPL which contributed 53 points followed by POL (41 points), OGDC (31 points), HUBC (26 points) and UBL (14 points).

The sectors taking the index towards south were cement with 48 points, technology & communication (18 points), food & personal care products (14 points), engineering (12 points) and textile composite (12 points). The most points taken off the index were by LUCK which stripped the index of 23 points followed by SYS (19 points), MEBL (18 points), PSO (14 points) and NESTLE (11 points).