KARACHI: The stock market ended with a nominal gain of 45 points on Thursday amid selling pressure during the first half of trading.
The benchmark KSE-100 of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 32,446 points as against 32,401 points showing an increase of 45 points.
Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that market traded in a narrow range and saw an oscillation of +101 points and -251 points.
Early part of the session saw bearish trend, with selling pressure in Cement, Banks, Fertilizer stocks. Sectors contributing positively to the index included E&P and Autos. Among banking sector scrips, HBL performed well despite dismal financial results announced yesterday. The Bank is scheduled to hold conference call with Analysts to explain the financial performance.
Cement sector remained muted throughout the day, giving hope to short sellers, whereby MLCF ended the session at lower circuit.
Overall volumes were still low, and were mainly contributed by Cement sector (10 million shares), followed by Banks (9 million). BOP ranked top amongst the volume leaders with 5.5 million shares, followed by MLCF (5.3 million).
Sectors contributing to the performance include E&P (+41 points), Fertilizer (+35 points), Power (+25 points), Banks (+24 points), Cement (-31 points) and O&GMCs (-25 points).
Volumes declined further from 84.4 million shares to 63.1 million shares (-25 percent DoD). Average traded value also declined by 31 percent to reach US$ 14.6 million as against US$ 21 million.
Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include BOP, MLCF, TRG, UNITY and FFL, which formed 36 percent of total volumes.
Stocks that contributed positively include HUBC (+26 points), OGDC (+22 points), HBL (+18 points), ENGRO (+15 points) and NESTLE (+14 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include PSO (-14 points), HMB (-9 points), LUCK (-7 points), TRG (-7 points) and FCCL (-6 points).
