Stocks end flat in range bound trading

Stocks end flat in range bound trading

KARACHI: The stock market ended flat on Tuesday in a range bound trading activity. The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 47,987 points as against previous day’s closing of 48,013 points, showing a decline of 25 points.

Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the market remained depressed trading in a narrow range between -81 points and +142 points, closing the session -25 points.

Lack of direction in the market and docile reaction to price triggers (particularly Crude Oil) has led the market into obscurity. Selling pressure remained evident in Cement, E&P, O&GMCs, Steel, Technology and Power sectors.

Textile sector did see some positive activity with NCL, NML, GATM and ILP showing better price performance. Among scrips, SILK realized trading volume of 75.1 million shares, followed by WTL (48.2 million) and KEL (37.4 million).

Sectors contributing to the performance include Textile (+68 points), Technology (+18 points), E&P (+16 points), Food (+12 points) and Miscellaneous (-32 points).

Volumes declined from 839.2 million shares to 610.7 million shares (-27 percent DoD). Average traded value also declined by 2 percent to reach US$ 98.1 million as against US$ 100.5 million.

Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include SILK, WTL, KEL, ANL and TPL, which formed 37 percent of total volumes.

Stocks that contributed positively to the index include SYS (+30 points), KTML (+21 points), MARI (+21 points), ANL (+20 points) and GATM (+13 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include PSEL (-34 points), UNITY (-12 points), DAWH (-10 points), NBP (-10 points) and OGDC (-9 points).