KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed another round of volatile activity on Wednesday, with the benchmark index falling to sustain gains and closing the day flat.
Equity markets around the world also showed a mixed performance, whereas crude oil prices declined from the previous close; WTI crude price fell 0.81pc to $42.77 while Brent crude price dropped 0.81pc to $45.09.
“The exploration & production sector helped kickstart the market rally during the initial trading hours, but cement and banking stocks remained under selling pressure, dragging the index to the red zone,” said a report issued by AHL Ltd. “The fertiliser sector remained under pressure throughout the session, but ENGRO’s financial results (with a dividend of Rs8 per share) helped the sector stage some recovery by the end.”
The benchmark KSE-100 Index remained volatile throughout the day, marking its intraday high at 40,424.92 (+240.91 points) and intraday low at 40,065.51 (-118.50 points). The index finally settled lower by 29.90 points at 40,154.11.
Among other indices, the KMI-30 Index gained 211.66 points to close at 65,098.54, whereas the KSE All Share Index lost 11.06 points, ending at 28,221.84.
The overall market volumes fell further from 458.80 million shares in the previous session to 427.19 million shares (-7pc ). Average traded value also declined by 10pc, from $123.2 million to $110.4 million. Pakistan International Bulk Terminal Ltd (PIBTL -1.20pc), TRG Pakistan Ltd (TRG -4.10pc) and Power Cement Ltd Right Shares (POWERR1 +14.29pc) led the volume chart, exchanging 26.24 million, 22.66 million and 20.21 million shares, respectively.
Sectors that pulled the index to the red zone included cement (-23.37 points), technology (-21.55 points) and automobile assembling (-20.28 points). Among the companies, TRG Pakistan Ltd (TRG -22.23 pts), Hub Power Company (HUBC -20.15 points) and Indus Motor Company (INDU -9.24 points) dented the index the most.
Losing 1.37pc from its total market capitalization, the automobile assembling turned out to be the session’s top loser, with Indus Motor Company (INDU 2.30pc), Honda Atlas Cars (HCAR 2.80pc) and Pakistan Suzuki Motors (PSMC -4.30pc) closing in the negative.
On the financial side, Hub Power Company Ltd (HUBC -1.09pc) declared earnings per share of Rs7.84 for FY20 as compared to Rs6.70 for FY19; Pakistan Suzuki Motors Company Ltd (PSMC -4.30pc) announced an EPS of Rs-18.49 for 2QFY20 as compared to Rs-6.62 last year; whereas Engro Corporation Ltd (ENGRO +1.83pc) posted an EPS of Rs7.80 for 2QFY20 as compared to Rs2.31 last year.
