KARACHI: The Pakistan stocks witnessed a dull and range-bound activity on Friday, as the investors remained wary of selloff in the global equity markets, as well as high inflation numbers, dealers said.
Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp said that the stocks closed lower on global equity selloff and investors’ concerns over the reports of high CPI inflation at 9 per cent in September 2021.
“Concerns over the ongoing economic uncertainty, amid weak rupee, over-leveraging played a catalytic role in the bearish close.”
The Pakistan Stock Exchange KSE-100 shares index shed 0.06 per cent, or 27.9 points, to close at 44,871.70 points. The KSE-30 shares index shed 0.3 per cent, or 52.45 points, to close at 17,608.16 points.
As many as 561 scrips were active, of which 368 advanced, 178 declined and 15 remained unchanged. The ready market volumes stood at 267.05 million shares, compared with the turnover of 372.4 million shares in the last trading session.
An analyst at Topline Securities said lacklustre activity was observed at the exchange on Friday. “[The] major contribution to the index came from SEARL, National Refinery Limited (NRL), Attock Refinery Limited (ATRL), Colgate Palmolive (COLG) and Kohat Cement (KOHC), as they cumulatively contributed 366 points to the index.”
Maaz Mulla at JS Global Capital said that the local bourse witnessed range-bound activity, as the KSE-100 moved between 45,003 points and 44,600 points.
“On the news front, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken acknowledged the role of Pakistan to facilitate the success of the Doha peace process. Moving forward, we expect range-bound activity to continue in the coming sessions and recommend investors to avail any downside as an opportunity to buy stocks from the banks and textile sectors.”
The companies that reflected the highest gains included Colgate Palmolive, up Rs92.88 to close at Rs2,299.99/share; and Sapphire Textile, up Rs51 to close at Rs1,050/share.
The companies, which reflected the most losses included Nestle Pakistan, down Rs125.8 to close at Rs5,910/share; and Sapphire Fiber, down Rs59.76 to close at Rs740.24/share.
The highest volumes were witnessed in TPL Corp Limited with a turnover of 15.3 million shares. The scrip gained 5 paisas to close at Rs20.42/share; followed by Byco Petroleum with a turnover of 14.23 million shares. It gained 2 paisas to close at Rs8.2/share. Hascol Petroleum Limited remained third with a turnover of 14.17 million shares. It gained 51 paisas to finish at Rs7.03.