KARACHI: On Thursday, the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) gained only 20.34 points after three successful sessions this week, providing the investors with an opportunity of profiting from their investments.
The Karachi Share Index (KSE-100) went up by 20.34 points (0.05 per cent) after closing at 42,047.72 against the previous closing of 42,027.38 points. The market went up 42,410.20 points during intra-day trading, while the recorded low was 42,008.94 points.
The trading volume went slightly down to 420.3 million shares today as compared to 476.8 million traded in the previous session, according to PSX website data. The daily traded value decreased to Rs 18.032 billion from Rs 20.406 billion in the previous session.
The market opened on positive and continued its upward trends, but at the last trading hours, the market came down and closed at 20.34 points.
However, the investors had low confidence regarding future investments due to rising cases of Covid-19 and potential negative impact of lockdown, the analyst said.
International crude prices also had uncertainty around them due to an impending decision by OPEC+ regarding crude output. Resultantly, E&P stocks were also range-bound without much enthusiasm.
Cement and Steel sectors saw cautious buying activity, however, selling pressure kept the increase in prices in check.
Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include TRG, MLCF, ASL, HASCOL and PRL, which formed 36% of total volumes. Stocks that contributed positively to the index include SYS (+27pts), LUCK (+17pts), MCB (+15pts), FFC (+15pts) and PSO (+12pts). Stocks that contributed negatively include TRG (-12pts), MTL (-12pts), SEARL (-11pts), HBL (-8pts) and COLG (-7pts).
