PSX cuts a flat figure on late profit-booking

Stocks on Wednesday see-sawed in static trade with late profit-booking ultimately rolling back modest early gains, traders said.

Pakistan Stock Exchange's (PSX) benchmark KSE 100-share Index inched up by 31.56 points or 0.07 percent to close at 47,789.88 points, rising to 47,979.89 points and falling to 47,709.88 points in the day.

Muhammad Arbash, an analyst at Topline Securities, said equities remained sluggish throughout the day and the index traded in a range of 270 points.

Financial sector mostly remained in the limelight with MEBL, HBL, and UBL contributing the most to the index, Arbash said.

On the flip side, he said, TRG was the main laggard of the day, followed by cement sector, weighed down by lower July dispatches.

KSE-30 index, however, lost 14.18 points or 0.07 percent to close at 19,095.89 points.

Traded shares swelled 89 million to reach 532.95 million against 443.21 million shares in the previous session, while trading value dropped to Rs15.15 billion compared to Rs16.19 billion on Tuesday.

Market capital improved to Rs8.371 trillion from Rs8.356 trillion. As many as 492 stocks were active on Wednesday, of which 229 stepped up, 237 down, and 26 stayed unchanged.

Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp said stocks ended little higher led by selected scrips as investor weighed reports on likely surge in forex reserves by $2.8 billion on IMF approval of new SDR reserves for member nations.

However, oil and cement stocks were battered by a slump in global crude oil prices and dismal cement sales, falling by 19.41 percent year-on-year in July.

Hopes of release of IMF’s (International Monetary Fund) $400 million pending loan disbursement next month and speculations in the earnings season kept stocks buoyed, Mehanti added.

Nestle Pakistan took the lead in terms of gains, up Rs171.46 to close at Rs6,050 per share, followed by Colgate Palmolive, jumping Rs49.66 to end the day at Rs2,912.99 per share.

Premium Textile suffered most losses, falling Rs30 to settle at Rs410 per share, trailed by Pakistan Engineering, down Rs16.42 to end at Rs376.31 per share.

Brokerage Arif Habib Limited said the market traded range-bound, oscillating between -49 points and +222 points, and ending the session +32.

“Profit booking brought the index down from session’s high, which seems plausible after an ascent of 600 points in the past couple of sessions.”

The brokerage said technology, fertiliser, cement and steel sectors saw profit-booking, whereas banks and oil and gas marketing comopanies moved up.

Notable turnover was recorded in Telecard Limited, Hascol Petrol, WorldCall Telecom, TPL Corp Ltd, Pace Pakistan Ltd, Byco Petroleum, Ghani Global Glass, Unity Foods Ltd, Agritech Limited, and Sui Northern Gas XD.

Telecard Limited printed the highest turnover with 58.17 million shares. The telecom gained 81 paisas to close at Rs17.85 per share. It was followed by Hascol Petrol with 49.79 million shares. The stock closed higher by 31 paisas to end the session at Rs8.63 per share.

Share turnover in the future contracts rose to 124.59 million from 109.59 million traded in the previous session.