Equity market ends flat amid selling pressure

Equity market ends flat amid selling pressure

KARACHI: The equity market gained 25 points on Tuesday amid selling in major scrips.

The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 35,631 points as against 35,605 points showing an increase of 25 points.

First day of Ramadan started on a positive note, went up by 200 points and ended in green zone with 42 points (unadjusted).

Nonetheless, several scrips including blue chips saw aggressive selling at bourse, such as SNGP, PSO, OGDC, KEL, HUBC etc. Banking sector, on the contrary, performed well with HBL closing near upper circuit whereas UBL was also seen trading near upper circuit.

Banking sector topped with 12.4M shares, followed by Power (12M). Among scrips, KEL ranked first with 9.6M shares, followed by BOP (5.3M).

Other scrips which generated volumes include SNGP, MLCF, HUBCR, and LOTCHEM.

Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (+190 points), Food (+17 points), Cement (-44 points), O&GMCs (-29 points), Power (-28 points), E&P (-21 points), Pharma (-16 points).

Volumes declined again from 71.4mn shares to 65.4mn (-8 percent DoD). Average traded value also declined by 13 percent to reach US$ 19.4mn as against US$ 22.4mn.

Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include KEL, BOP, SNGP, MLCF and HUBCR, which formed 37 percent of total volumes.

Stocks that contributed positively include HBL (+86 points), UBL (+54 points), MCB (+28 points) NESTLE (+22 points) and NBP (+14 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include LUCK (-21 points), SEARL (-18 points), HUBC (-15 points), PSO (-13 points) and ENGRO (-12 points).