Stocks end flat on rising Omicron cases

Stocks end flat on rising Omicron cases

KARACHI: The stocks ended with a nominal gain of 17 points on Wednesday due to rise in Omicron cases – the new variant of coronavirus.

The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 45,408 points as against previous day’s closing of 45,391 points, showing an increase of 17 points.

Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the market played in the range-bound area today as investors remained risk-averse due to the rising number of Covid-19’s new variant Omicron cases in Pakistan.

Profit-taking was witnessed in the first trading hour while market battled between the bulls and bears throughout the day.

Activity continued to remain side-ways as market witnessed hefty volumes in the 3rd tier stocks.

Sectors contributing to the performance include E&P (+25 points), Power (+24 points), Investment Banks/Sec. (+20 points), Fertilizer (+13 points) and Tobacco (+13 points).

Volumes increased from 376.0 million shares to 432.1 million shares (+14.9 per cent DoD). Traded value decreased by 19.5 per cent to reach US$ 58.2 million as against US$ 72.3 million.

Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include WTL, UNITYR3, TELE, FNEL and TRG.