KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed a volatile trading session on Tuesday, with the indices swinging wildly in both directions before managing to hold their ground to close in green.
Losing 315 points, the KSE-100 Index touched an intraday low of 31,436.22. The index then swung to an intraday high of 31,892.23 points after gaining 141.02 points. It finally closed flat higher by 78.03 points at 31,829.24. The KMI-30 Index gathered 230.67 points to end at 50,430.91, while the KSE All Share Index gained 96.57 points, settling at 23,242.49. Out of the total traded shares, 151 advanced and 122 declined.
The overall market volumes remained low and were recorded at 88.81 million. Maple Leaf Cement Factory Limited (MLCF -4.00pc) turned out to be volume leader once again with 17.68 million shares exchanging hands, followed by K-Electric Limited (KEL +0.62pc) and Fauji Cement Company Limited (FCCL +0.08pc) with 4.60 million and 2.92 million traded shares respectively.
The sectors which rescued the KSE-100 Index from closing in the red zone included oil and gas exploration (+33.14 points), chemical (+18.67 points) and oil and gas marketing (+17.32 points).
Among the companies, Pak Petroleum Limited (PPL +22.71 points), Colgate-Palmolive (Pakistan) Limited (COLG +12.84 points) and Pakistan State Oil Company Limited (PSO +12.57 points) remained the top positive contributors to the index.
In a notification sent to the exchange, the management of Sazgar Engineering Works Limited (SAZEW +1.23pc) announced a revision in the cost of its Four-Wheeler Vehicle Assembly Project from Rs1.76 billion to Rs2.10 billion after a constant devaluation of Pak rupee. The estimated date of completion has also been revised from December 2019 to June 2020.
The company also announced its financial performance for FY19. Sales declined by -18.89pc YoY, while earnings per share depreciated by 55.92pc to Rs3.80 owing to an increase in finance cost by 396.20pc. This restulted in a decline in net profit margins from 4.69pc in FY18 to 2.55 in FY19.
Byco Petroleum Pakistan Limited (BYCO -0.37pc) also released its financial results for FY19. Although the revenue increased by 18.97pc to Rs197.83 billion, the company failed to hold on to gross profit margins which fell from 5.50pc in FY19 to 0.99pc in FY19. The company announced an EPS of Rs-0.32 for FY19 as compared to Rs0.94 in FY18.
