KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) failed to sustain gains accumulated in early trade, closing a range-bound session flat on Thursday.
Global equity markets mostly displayed a negative trend, whereas crude oil prices also slipped lower from the previous close; WTI crude price falling 1.45pc to $41.38 while Brent crude price dropping 0.88pc to $43.95.
“Uncertainty over lockdown and rising Covid cases amid finalization of IMF review kept the market in limbo on Thursday,” a report issued by Arif Habib Ltd read. “OGDC, PPL and DGKC remained the negative contributors today whereas HBL, UBL and LUCK helped the index close in green.”
MARKET SUMMARY
The benchmark KSE-100 Index started the day on a positive note, registering its intraday high at 40,745.02 after gaining 230.35 points. It, however, failed to sustain the positive momentum and fell to its intraday low at 40,431.41 (-83.26 points). Recovering some of its losses towards the end, the index finally settled flat (+26.03 points) at 40,540.70.
Among other indices, the KMI-30 Index added 22.58 points to end at 64,517.52, while the KSE All Share Index gathered 40.94 points, closing at 28,431.51.
The overall market volumes improved from 145.88 million shares in the previous session to 188.55 million shares (+30pc). Average traded value also increased by 28pc, from $39.1 million to $50 million. TRG Pakistan Ltd (TRG +3.62pc), Unity Foods Ltd (UNITY +2.06pc) and Faysal Bank Ltd (FABL +2.66pc) led the volume chart, exchanging 27.14 million, 17.81 million and 9.12 million shares, respectively.
Sectors that kept the benchmark index afloat included cement (+16.57 points), technology & communication (+15.77 points) and banking (14.60 points). Among the companies, Habib Bank Ltd (HBL +26.50 points), TRG Pakistan Ltd (TRG +20.55 points) and Lucky Cement Ltd (LUCK +17.38 points) remained the top contributors.
Adding 1.04pc to its cumulative market capitalization, the technology & communication sector ended as the session’s top performer, with NetSol Technologies Ltd (NETSOL 7.49pc), Avanceon Limited (AVN 1.88pc) and Telecard Limited (TELE 1.28pc) posting decent gains.
