KARACHI:
The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed on Friday with weak gains as investors resorted to speculation at attractive levels after the KSE-100 index rose earlier in the day.
The absence of encouraging developments kept investors cautious, leading to limited activity in major stocks, while smaller companies attracted the interest of market players.
The index opened on a positive note in the morning, hitting an intraday high of 79,254.25 before midday. Significant support came from the cement, banking and oil sectors.
However, as the session progressed, investors began to unload their positions, which pushed the market to an intraday low of 78,917.29 just before the end of trading.
An important development was the rate of inflation based on the sensitive price index (SPI), which fell by 0.15% on the week, marking its fourth consecutive week of decline.
Further, the Pakistan rupee appreciated marginally to Rs 278.57 against a dollar in the interbank market.
“Equities closed higher, led by tier two and tier three stocks, amid speculation on SBP’s September 12 rate announcement,” said Ahsan Mehanti, MD of Arif Habib Corp.
“The Supreme Court ruling in favor of the government in the NAB amendment case and 14% year-on-year export growth for August were also the catalysts for the positive close on the PSX.”
In closing, the KSE-100 index rose slightly by 34.38 points or 0.04% to 78,897.73 points.
Topline Securities, in its review, said a capped session was seen as the index traded between an intraday high of 391 points and an intraday low of -54 points. It finally settled at 78.898, up 0.04%.
Significant positive contributions came from Kohat Cement, Mari Petroleum, Bank Alfalah, National Bank of Pakistan and MCB Bank, which cumulatively added 42 points to the index.
On the other hand, Meezan Bank, Engro Corp, Fauji Fertiliser, Habib Metropolitan Bank and National Foods lost value, bringing down the index by 30 points, Topline added.
Arif Habib Limited (AHL), in its report, wrote that the KSE-100 gained 0.45% weekly but remained below the 79,000 mark.
On Friday, 44 stocks advanced and 52 declined with Kohat Cement (+10%), Mari Petroleum (+1.31%) and Bank Alfalah (+2.11%) contributing the most to the index’s gains, he reported.
The upcoming FTSE rebalancing on September 20 is now in focus, with Pakistan shifting from secondary emerging to frontier market, which may affect sell-side flows, AHL added.
JS Global analyst Mubashir Anis Naviwala observed that the stock market saw limited activity where the KSE-100 closed at 78,898, up 34 points.
The lack of positive enablers kept investors cautious, resulting in limited participation in mainboard stocks and volumes largely driven by small-cap stocks.
“Going forward, we expect limited activity to continue and recommend investors take advantage of any downside as a buying opportunity in the cement and textile sectors,” the analyst added.
Total trading volume fell to 743.1 million shares compared with Thursday’s tally of 770.5 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs 12.9 billion.
Shares of 444 companies were traded. Of these, 185 stocks closed higher, 201 declined and 58 remained unchanged.
WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 133.3 million shares traded, gaining Rs 0.08 to close at Rs 1.42. It was followed by Pace Pakistan with 80.99 million shares, gaining Rs 0.48 to close at Rs 6.14 and Fauji Foods with 46.7 million shares, gaining Rs 0.49 to close at Rs9.52.
During the session, foreign investors sold shares worth Rs 1.13 billion, according to NCCPL.
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