PSX Closing Bell: The Thin Ice

March 24, 2021 (MLN): The capital market witnessed a volatile trading activity on Wednesday amid roll-over week’s downward pressure faced off against the strength of investors’ sentiments. The KSE-100 index extended yesterday’s gains and closed at 45,544.19 level, after advancing 136.86 points or a 0.30% increase.

The recently proposed Refinery policy remained in focus for the participants as government plans to provide magnanimous incentives to encourage developments and investments in the Refinery sector, with investments of PKR 10bn, as per reports, are already in the pipeline, as per market closing note by Aba Ali Habib Securities.

Moreover, the E&P sector, which led the Index the other day remained negative throughout the session on an account of an overnight fall in international oil prices by almost 7%.

The Index traded in a range of 338.06 points or 0.74 percent of previous close, showing an intraday high of 45,593.61 and a low of 45,255.55.

Of the 98 traded companies in the KSE100 Index 52 closed up 46 closed down, while 0 remained unchanged. Total volume traded for the index was 272.53 million shares.

Sectors propping up the index were Technology & Communication with 123 points, Automobile Assembler with 29 points, Chemical with 27 points, Cement with 25 points and Commercial Banks with 19 points.

The most points added to the index was by TRG which contributed 119 points followed by MTL with 16 points, ATRL with 15 points, PTC with 14 points and HUBC with 13 points.

Sector wise, the index was let down by Oil & Gas Exploration Companies with 73 points, Fertilizer with 20 points, Oil & Gas Marketing Companies with 17 points, Inv. Banks / Inv. Cos. / Securities Cos. with 5 points and Food & Personal Care Products with 5 points.

The most points taken off the index was by OGDC which stripped the index of 46 points followed by ENGRO with 29 points, POL with 14 points, PPL with 13 points and SYS with 9 points.

All Share Volume decreased by 31.31 Million to 409.68 Million Shares. Market Cap increased by Rs.15.95 Billion.

Total companies traded were 399 compared to 404 from the previous session. Of the scrips traded 208 closed up, 180 closed down while 11 remained unchanged.

Total trades decreased by 11,731 to 154,653.

Value Traded increased by 3.52 Billion to Rs.25.61 Billion

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