Market watch: KSE-100 ends with trimmed gains

Benchmark index increases 27.43 points to finish at 42,772.25

KARACHI: Stocks failed to sustain the positive rally, ending only marginally positive with the KSE-100 Index ending with trimmed gains on Wednesday due to profit-taking.

The KSE-100 shot up as soon as trading began, surpassing the 43,000-mark. However, profit-taking amid political uncertainty due to upcoming elections meant the index remained under selling pressure. Cement, steel and oil sectors bore the brunt of the selling pressure, dragging the index down.

At close, the benchmark KSE 100-share Index recorded an increase of 27.43 points or 0.06% to settle at 42,772.25.

JS research's Maaz Mulla said volatility prevailed at the bourse with relatively lower volumes.



"The KSE-100 Index made an intraday high of +316 points and an intraday low of -68 points," said Mulla.

"Profit booking was seen where investors started reducing intraday positions," added Mulla. "Despite mundane activity in the market, it appeared to consolidate as prices have fallen down to extremely attractive levels.

"Commercial banks' heavyweights closed mixed cumulatively contributing +46 points to the index. MCB (+1.34%), NBP (+2.81%) and ABL (+1.11%) closed in the green, while on the flipside HMB (-0.45%), HBL (-0.06%) and UBL (-0.67%) closed in the red.

"On the other hand, losses in the E&P sector dragged down the benchmark index by 25 points as oil closed lower pulling back from its strongest levels in three-and-a-half-years. OGDC (-0.46%), POL (-0.53%) and PPL (-0.28%) were the major losers in the aforementioned sector. Cement sector remained under pressure where heavyweights such as LUCK (-1.21%), DGKC (-0.99%), FCCL (-0.43%) and PIOC (-0.55%) lost value to close in the red zone.

Market watch: KSE-100 breaks 6-session losing streak, ends marginally positive

Volume leader for the day was FABL (-0.08%), with 18 million shares changing hands."

Mulla said the market is expected to remain volatile with flows from local institutions and foreigners providing direction.

Shares of 352 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 174 stocks closed higher, 166 declined while 12 remained unchanged.

Overall, trading volumes declined to 131.3 million shares compared with Tuesday's tally of 140.8 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs5.5 billion.

Faysal bank was the volume leader with 18.2 million shares, losing Rs0.02 to close at Rs23.99. It was followed by Pakistan Elektron with 6.9 million shares, losing Rs0.28 to close at Rs37.16 and Fauji Cement (XD) with 6.9 million shares, losing Rs0.11 to close at Rs25.6.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs83.5 million worth of shares during the trading session, according to data compiled by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan.