Pakistan Stock Exchange saw lacklustre activity on Friday but the benchmark KSE-100 index, after oscillating in a narrow band, managed to close in the green zone.
Sceptical investors adopted a cautious approach amid corporate result announcements, mainly owing to the rising international coal prices, which kept the cement sector under pressure.
On the contrary, investor confidence received a boost on news of Pakistan’s inclusion in the Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) Frontier Markets (FM) 100 index in May 2022.
Owing to the mixed sentiments, the benchmark KSE-100 index moved in a narrow range of 204 points (intra-day high) and 101 points (intra-day low) to finally settle with decent gains.
The market, after opening on a positive note, witnessed fluctuations since the beginning of the session.
In initial trading, the index touched an intra-day high of 46,144 points, but it soon came down to close the first half at 46,044 points.
The second session endured across-the-board profit-taking by investors as the index touched an intra-day low of 45,839 points.
However, a buying spree in the final hour propelled the index into the positive territory.
At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index recorded an increase of 139.33 points, or 0.3%, to settle at 46,079.37.
In the petroleum sector, Pakistan State Oil (PSO) declared earnings per share of Rs43.02 for the second quarter of fiscal year 2021-22, which was higher than market expectations, a report of Topline Securities said.
However, it did not announce any payout for the quarter, which pushed down its share price, the report added.
A report of Arif Habib Limited stated that the market stayed range bound as sustainability concerns arose over the psychological level of 46,000 points.
Cement sector remained under pressure due to higher international coal prices. PSO also came under pressure due to zero payout (cash dividend or bonus) in the financial result.
“Investors were unable to digest the index level of 46,000 as profit-taking was observed across the board in the last trading hour,” the report said.
Mainboard activity remained gloomy. On the flip side, activity continued to remain sideways as the market witnessed hefty volumes in third-tier stocks, it added.
Sectors contributing to the performance included banks (+122 points), miscellaneous (+27 points), automobile (+21 points), cement (+18 points) and technology (+18 points).
JS Global analyst Waqar Iqbal said that the market traded sideways with total volumes of 171 million shares. The KSE-100 index closed at 46,079, gaining 139 points day-on-day.
Top volume leaders were K-Electric, TRG Pakistan, WorldCall Telecom, Telecard Limited and TPL Properties.
“We see the market remaining range bound and advise investors to book profits at current levels,” the analyst said.
Overall trading volumes decreased to 170.6 million shares compared with Thursday’s tally of 286 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs7.7 billion.
Shares of 358 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 143 stocks closed higher, 195 declined and 20 remained unchanged.
K-Electric was the volume leader with 11.99 million shares, gaining Rs0.16 to close at Rs3.42. It was followed by WorldCall Telecom with 11.4 million shares, losing Rs0.03 to close at Rs2.15 and TRG Pakistan with 11.1 million shares, gaining Rs0.91 to close at Rs85.14.
Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs292.25 million worth of shares during the trading session, according to data compiled by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan.
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