Stocks witness range bound activity on rupee fall

KARACHI: Pakistan stocks witnessed a range bound trading activity on Tuesday due to fall in rupee value and political unrest in the country.

The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 43,204 points from previous day’s closing of 43,230 points, down by 26 points.

Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that range bound session was observed today due to political unrest and Pak Rupee (PKR) devaluation against dollar.

The market opened in the green zone but stayed volatile throughout the day. Main board activity remained dull.

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, profit taking was witnessed which led the index to close in the red zone.

Analysts at Topline Securities said that Pakistan equities carried forward yesterday buying momentum where investors opted to invest funds in blue chip stocks having attractive dividend yield. Initially, oil stocks led the show where recent rally in global oil prices brought them again into investors’ radar.

Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (-36.2 points), E&P (-25.1 points), Cements (-18.9 points), and Automobile Parts (-12.0 points).

Volumes increased from 124.9 million shares to 138.3 million shares (+10.7 per cent DoD). Average traded value also increased by 27.2 per cent to reach US$ 27.5 million as against US$ 21.7 million.

Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include TREET, TPLP, PAELR3, SMBL and TELE.