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Thursday March 28, 2024

Stocks end week on a flat note

By Our Correspondent
July 04, 2020

Socks on Friday were flat, mostly owing to lack of triggers, but maintained an uptrend throughout the week, while investors chose to suppress their risk appetite ahead of the weekend, thinning the overall turnover, dealers said.

Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) benchmark KSE-100 shares index gained 0.21 percent or 73.20 points to close at 35,051.38 points level. KSE-30 shares index followed suit with a high of 0.30 percent or 44.96 points to end at 15,202.82 points level.

Topline Securities in its daily market review said, “Positivity in the international/regional markets and increase in crude oil prices provided support to the market”. Major contributions to the index came from SEARL, MARI, TRG, FFC, and UBL, where they cumulatively contributed 124 points to the index, the brokerage said.

Of 346 active scrips, 155 moved up, 172 down, and 19 were unchanged. The ready market volumes stood at 175.761 million shares, as compared to 383.084 million shares in the previous session.

Fahad Rauf, deputy director at Ismail Iqbal Securities, said, “Equities remained positive on account of substantial reduction in active COVID-19 cases, owing to recoveries".

He said international markets were upbeat, while foreign exchange reserves increased $1.3 billion last week, which would also help overall sentiment.

“Pharmas, banks and fertilisers lead the index gains, contributing 100 points where for the six consecutive sessions the market closed on a positive note,” Rauf added.

Zia Shafi, senior investment advisor at Intermarket Securities, said, “Positive vibes continued during the week with healthy trading volumes; however, players are still shy to book new deals because of fear of higher inflation”. Shafi said the overall strategy should be buying on dips, while the trend is likely to be positive next week.

“Despite a strengthening index, several sectors have not yet gathered any buying, so in the coming weeks they would be active, helping the index sustain gains with no negative news in sight apparently,” he added.

Shahab Farooq, director research at Next Capital, said "Market moved in a narrow range today with very thin activity on a Friday that’s generally a dull day”. Lack of triggers and continued foreign selling were the main reasons for the lackluster performance, Farooq added.

Brokerage Habib Metro-Financial in a report said, “In the absence of any significant triggers and considerable gains over the last two trading sessions capping upside, the market participants did not see enough fodder to trade on".

“Moving forward, we expect the market to remain range-bound and recommend investors to continue trading in blue chips on the dips,” the brokerage report added.

The top gainers were Mari Petroleum, up Rs23.12 to close at Rs1245.77/share, and Ferozsons Laboratories, up Rs21.43 to finish at Rs333.77/share, while Archroma Pakistan, down Rs15.24 to close at Rs555.56/share, and Sapphire Textile, losing Rs15.01 to close at Rs909.99/share, were the main losers.

TRG Pakistan Limited posted the highest volumes with 23.306 million shares and gained Rs2.08 to end at Rs33.24/share. Pakistan Elektron’s turnover was the lowest with 5.204 million shares, whereas the scrip gained Rs0.39 to end at Rs24.46/share.