Benchmark KSE 100-share Index gains 34.01 points. PHOTO: FILE
KARACHI: The stock market saw marginal gains on Thursday on the back of financial and cement stocks despite poor performance by the exploration and production sector that knocked 69 points off the benchmark index.
At close, the Pakistan Stock Exchange’s (PSX) benchmark KSE 100-share Index recorded an increase of 34.01 points (0.09%) to end at 39,468.98. It extended the all-time high record achieved a day earlier.
Elixir Securities analyst Ali Raza said Pakistan equities closed marginally positive after the benchmark index traded volatile in a wide range of 400 points and lost all morning gains on profit-booking.
“The wider market opened positive and gained steadily despite index-heavy exploration and production stocks dragging the KSE-100 index because of lower global crude prices.”
Early gains were primarily led by the financial and cement shares that carried the momentum from Wednesday and pushed the KSE-100 index above the record 39,700-point level, up 0.7% intraday, said Raza.
“However, a continued decline in exploration and production stocks hurt the market mood and gave way to profit-taking,” he said.
Index-heavy Habib Bank (+1.2%) Lucky Cement (+1.6%) and MCB Bank (+1.1%) managed to stay in the green zone and cumulatively contributed 82 points to the index.
JS Global analyst Nabeel Haroon said the index opened on a positive note and rallied to hit an intraday high of +281 points but succumbed to selling pressure during the latter half of the trading session.
“Selling pressure was seen in the fertiliser sector as investors preferred to remain on the sidelines before sales numbers are out for the month of July.”
Trading volumes fell to 181 million shares compared with Wednesday’s tally of 224 million.
Shares of 371 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 151 stocks closed higher, 201 declined while 19 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs10.4 billion.
Dewan Motors was the volume leader with 12.3 million shares, gaining Rs0.37 to finish at Rs19.41. It was followed by Dewan Cement with 11.8 million shares, losing Rs0.11 to close at Rs15.44 and TRG Pakistan with 7.9 million shares, losing Rs0.23 to close at Rs34.20.
Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs146 million during the trading session, according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 29th, 2016.
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