LAHORE: The stock market witnessed mixed sentiments on Friday as investors continued to adopt a cautious approach due to unresolved economic issues. Indices that traded negative in the first half swung wildly in the later. Keeping up with their trend foreign investors ended as net-sellers on Thursday with a total outflow of $2.88 million.
Friday started with KSE 100 index touching its intraday low of 37,845.42 after losing 391.10 points. In search of a clear direction, the index swung in both directions and reached its day’s high of 38,487.37 (up by 250.85 points). It finally settled on upper end at 38,251.04 after appreciating by 14.52 points. The KMI 30 index depreciated by 141.99 points closing at 64,159.82. While the KSE All Share Index gathered 95.11 points ending at 28,384.10.
Market volumes declined from 136.69 million in the previous session to 130.34 million. Maintaining its position amongst top traded stocks for three consecutive sessions K-Electric Limited (KEL +0.50 per cent) led the volume chart with 17.35 million shares exchanged. Next in line were Pak Elektron Limited (PAEL -0.41 per cent) and Engro Polymer and Chemicals Limited (EPCL -0.03 per cent). The scripts had 14.43 million and 8.14 million shares traded respectively.
The jute sector (-1.70 per cent), closed-end mutual fund sector (-0.99 per cent), transport sector (-0.97 per cent), engineering sector (-0.75 per cent) and oil and gas exploration sector (-0.67 per cent) were all on losing end. Whereas, woollen sector (+4.72 per cent), synthetic and rayon sector (+4.09 per cent) and tobacco sector (+3.35 per cent) ended as gainers.
According to the notification sent to the exchange by the management of Hub Power Company Limited (HUBCO +0.33 per cent), the company has signed financing documents for its 330-megawatt Thar Energy Limited power project during the Joint Coordination Committee (JIC) meeting held in Beijing. China Development Bank (CDP) has been engaged as lead arranger for foreign financing from China and Habib Bank Limited (HBL -0.61 per cent) as lead arranger for domestic financing.
Meanwhile, in the sidelines, the United Arab Emirates made an announcement on Friday that it would deposit $3 billion in State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to support country’s declining reserves. Furthermore, foreign exchange reserves held by central bank surged up by 10.85 per cent on WoW basis according to data released by State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Thursday.
