KARACHI: Pakistan stocks ended up by 67 points on Wednesday in range bound trading due to concerns over rising cases of coronavirus.
The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) ended at 44,955 points as against 44,888 points, showing an increase of 67 points.
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Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that range bound session was witnessed today due to concerns over rising Covid-19 cases and mounting international oil prices.
Cement sector stayed in the red zone as provisional cement data for the month of January 2022 depicts a decline of 19 per cent YoY to 3.85 million tons whereby domestic dispatches recorded a dip of 18 per cent YoY to 3.32 million tons led primarily by slowdown in construction activity.
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In fertilizer sector, FFBL made the journey to its lower circuit due to disappointing result announcement. Moreover, main board activity remained gloomy.
On the flip-side, activity continued to remain side-ways as market witnessed hefty volumes in the 3rd tier stocks. In the last trading hour, value buying was observed due to announcement of corporate results.
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Sectors contributing to the performance include Technology (+15.1 points), Chemical (+25.8 points), Commercial Banks (+20.2 points), Inv. Banks (+14.8 points) and Cement (+10.6 points).
Volumes decreased from 207.0 million shares to 137.3 million shares (-33.7 per cent DoD). Traded value also decreased by 33.9 per cent to reach US$ 30.3 million as against US$ 45.9 million.
Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include TRG, GGL, TPLP, WTL and CNERGY.
