Stocks manage modest gains in range-bound trading

KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange moved within a narrow range on Tuesday,  with the indices swaying in both directions before ending in the green. 

“The market traded in a similar fashion as yesterday, whereby cement, fertilizer, banks saw profit booking/selling pressure, which was counterweighted by index heavyweights HUBC and ENGRO,” said a report issued by AHL Ltd. “However, the cement sector managed to attract the highest volumes following the ECC’s approval of funds for the construction sector. Also, international crude oil prices increased overnight, which helped exploration & production stocks stage recovery.” 

The benchmark KSE-100 Index remained volatile throughout the day, registering its intraday high at 37,986.37 (+286.06 points) and intraday low at 37,552.07 (-148.24 points). It settled higher by 104.30 points at 37,804.61. 

Among other indices, the KMI-30 Index accumulated 567.70 points to end at 61,146.99, while the KSE All Share Index gathered only 56.73 points, closing at 26,902.11.

The overall market volumes fell from 457.13 million in the previous session to 404.98 million. Average traded value also declined by 9pc, from $116.5 million to $106.2 million. Hascol Petroleum Limited (HASCOL +2.55pc), Unity Foods Limited (UNITY +3.48pc) and Agritech Limited (AGL +13.20pc) led the volume chart, exchanging 21.01 million, 20.10 million and 19.26 million shares, respectively.

Sectors that rescued the benchmark index from the red zone included cement (+77.80 points), automobile assembling (+41.16 points) and oil & gas marketing (+25.78 points). Among the companies, Lucky Cement (LUCK +73.68 points), Millat Tractors (MTL +28.73 points) and Pakistan State Oil (PSO +19.000 points) remained the top contributors.

Adding 2.41pc to its cumulative market capitalization, the automobile assembling sector emerged as the session’s top gainer, with Honda Atlas Cars Ltd (HCAR +7.50pc), Ghandhara Industries Limited (GHNI +7.50pc), Ghandhara Nissan Limited (GHNL +7.49pc) and Pakistan Suzuki Motors Company Limited (PSMC +4.70pc) posting decent gains.

Meanwhile, in a notification to the exchange, Balochistan Particle Board Ltd (BPBL +2.07pc) announced that the company has received a ‘Letter of Intent’ for the acquisition of majority shares of the company from Progressive International on July 15, 2020. The BoD’s had already recommended the winding up of the company.