KARACHI: The share market ended with an increase of 20 points on Thursday as market traded in range bound during the day.
The benchmark KSE-100 index of the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 42,047 points against 42,027 points showing an increase of 20 points.
Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the market traded range bound after a gradual yet sketchy run up from around 39500 level till now, which has resulted in an addition of 2500 points however, investors still seem perplexed for reasons of rising cases of corona and potential negative impact of lock down.
International crude prices also traded direction less for want of an impending decision by OPEC+ regarding crude output. Resultantly, E&P stocks also traded range bound without much excitement.
Cement and Steel sectors saw cautious buying activity, however, selling pressure kept the increase in prices in check. Among scrips, TRG led the table with 35.2 million shares, followed by MLCF (30.9 million) and ASL (29.6 million).
Sectors contributing to the performance include Power (-7 points), Pharma (-4 points), E&P (-2 points), Autos (+8 points), Cement (+7 points) and Fertilizer (+5 points).
Volumes declined from 476.8 million shares to 420 million shares (-12 percent DoD). Average traded value also dipped by 12 percent to reach US$ 112.5 million as against US$ 127.4 million.
Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include TRG, MLCF, ASL, HASCOL and PRL, which formed 36 percent of total volumes.
Stocks that contributed positively to the index include SYS (+27 points), LUCK (+17 points), MCB (+15 points), FFC (+15 points) and PSO (+12 points).
Stocks that contributed negatively include TRG (-12 points), MTL (-12 points), SEARL (-11 points), HBL (-8 points) and COLG (-7 points).
