Stock market casts off 69 points on profit-taking

KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) edged lower amid profit-taking on Wednesday after making earlier gains, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index losing 69.42 points (-0.11 percent) to close at 65,656.62 points.
The market opened on a positive note and the benchmark index breached the 66,000 points level in the intraday. However, investors resorted to profit-taking in the final part of the trading session.
According to market experts, the investors remained cautious awaiting developments as the new government prepared to initiate discussions for the final International Monetary Fund (IMF) review. Pakistan is likely to commence talks with the Fund next week, as the current $3 billion nine-month IMF programme is expiring next month. Pakistan urgently also needs a fresh IMF agreement to shore up its struggling $350 billion economy which is suffering from high inflation, low reserve and high external financing needs.
The benchmark index traded in a range of 547.06 points, showing an intraday high of 66,150.94 points and an intraday low of 65,603.88 points. Among other indices, the KSE All Share Index gained 30.53 points (+0.07 percent) to close at 43,454.19 points. Similarly, the KMI All Share Islamic Index gained 55.34 points (+0.18 percent) to close at 31,453.48 points.
Total volumes traded for the KSE-100 Index remained 191.57 million shares, while the overall market volumes remained 419.74 million shares. Among scrips, CNERGY topped the volumes with 30.68 million shares, followed by PIAA (28.09 million) and PRL (28.04 million). Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes included CNERGY, PIAA, PRL, TELE, and KOSM, which formed over 32 percent of total volumes.
A total of 351 companies traded shares in the stock exchange, out of which shares of 163 closed up, shares of 169 companies closed down while shares of 19 companies remained unchanged. A total of 95 companies traded shares in the KSE-100 Index, out of which share prices of 44 companies closed up, 50 companies closed down and one remained unchanged. The number of total trades remained 200,668, while the value traded remained Rs18.3 billion.
In terms of rupee, NESTLE remained the top gainer with an increase of Rs522.5 (+6.81 percent) per share, closing at Rs8,200. The runner-up remained UPFL, the share price of which climbed up by Rs400 (+1.9 percent) to Rs21,500. MARI remained the top loser with a decrease of Rs53.56 (-2.16 percent) per share, closing at Rs2,431.67, followed by PHDL, the share price of which fell by Rs39.67 (-7.5 percent) to close at Rs489.33 per share.
The major sectors taking the index towards north remained food and personal care products (51 points), commercial banks (26 points), investment bank/investment companies/ securities companies (19 points), oil & gas exploration companies (18 points), pharmaceuticals (11 points), and textile composite (7 points).
Major companies adding points to the index remained NESTLE (22 points), MCB (20 points), PSO (10 points), DAWH (9 points), HUBC (8 points), OGDC and SHEL (7 points each), UNITY (6 points), IBFL (5 points), and ILP (4 points).
The major sectors taking the index towards south remained fertilizer (69 points), technology and communication (46 points), oil & gas exploration companies (34 points), cement (25 points), chemicals (12 points), and engineering (8 points).
Major companies depriving the index of points remained ENGRO (25 points), MARI (24 points), TRG (13 points), SYS (8 points), LUCK (7 points), KEL, BAHL and BYCO (6 points each), and SNGP and PSEL (5 points each). – TLTP