KARACHI: The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) ended with gain of 32 points in a range bound trading activities on Wednesday. The index closed at 38,929 points as against 38,896 points showing an increase of 32 points.
Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the market followed the trend witnessed in the past couple of sessions, which is range bound activity in essence.
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BOP stands out as the volume leader with 23.6 million shares, whereby the banking sector also topped the chart with 32 million shares. Investors took little interest and focus apparently shifted towards Interloop’s book building.
Anticipation of an increase in gas price (as allowed by Finance Minister) and interest rate hike also concerned investors, which is likely to have negative impact on cost of doing business. Cement, Steel and E&P sectors largely saw selling pressure, whereas Fertilizer sector remained unscathed, relatively.
Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (+42 points), Power (+24 points), Tobacco (+11 points), E&P (-23 points), Cement (-15 points) and Autos (-11 points).
Volumes increased from 90mn shares to 93mn shares (+4 percent DoD). Average traded value, on the contrary, declined by 17 percent to reach US$ 23.5mn as against US$ 28.3mn.
Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include BOP, KEL, UNITY, STPL and LOTCHEM, which formed 47 percent of total volumes.
Stocks that contributed positively include HBL (+25 points), HUBC (+20 points), UBL (+17 points), PMPK (+11 points), and EPCL (+8 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include MEBL (-15 points), OGDC (-9 points), PKGS (-8 points), LUCK (-8 points) and PPL (-7 points).
