KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed flat on Friday, ending a short bullish streak, with the benchmark KSE-100 index losing 87 points to close at 41,911 points.
The index opened higher but could not sustain momentum, losing points after peaking at 42,082 to touch the day’s low of 41,750 in the second half of trading.
Overall, trading volumes increased to 166 million shares compared with Thursday’s tally of 159.8 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs6.1 billion. Shares of 341 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 170 stocks closed higher, 160 declined while 11 remained unchanged.
JS Global’s Ahsan Lakhani said the bourse closed negative with major heavyweights ending lower.
“Market kicked off positive hitting a day’s high of 84 points,” said Lakhani. “It then traded sideways making a low of -248 points to finally close in the red.
“Today’s major heavyweights namely, PPL (-1.1%), OGDC (-0.2%), ENGRO (-1.0%), UBL (-0.2%), MCB (-0.8%), POL (-0.3%) and LUCK (-0.8%) cumulatively contributed -78 points.
“Volume leaders were KEL (+4.2%), PIBTL (+2.3%) and PAEL (+1.1%). Cements, energy and financials dragged the market down where LUCK (-0.8%), DGKC (-1.5%) and FCCL (-1.9%) closed in the red. Mixed sentiment was seen in financials where HBL (+1.0%) closed in the green on the flipside, UBL (-0.2%) and MCB (-0.8%) closed in the red.
“Moving forward, we expect the market to remain positive with flows from local and foreign institutions guiding market direction following the General Elections 2018.
K-Electric Ltd was the volume leader with 12.1 million shares, gaining Rs0.23 to close at Rs5.68. It was followed by Silk Bank Ltd with 9.6 million shares, gaining Rs0.2 to close at Rs1.36 and Pakistan International Bulk Terminal Ltd (XR) with 9.4 million shares, gaining Rs0.25 to close at Rs11.35.
