KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) finished the latest trading session before the Eidul Azha holidays as the target of the KSE-100 index surged almost 40 points, despite a drop in positive triggers.

Nevertheless, the trading remained dull as investors withdrew from using fresh positions before the three-day-long holidays while the rise of the fourth wave of Covid’19.

The KSE-100 index maintained increasing and continued to be positive for the fifth session.

As trading started, the index exceeded the 48,000 targets only in the first few hours, however, the absence of positive news flow reversed the increases, and the market traded at a plain pace in noon.

Following the plain pace, the momentum grew again, but weak investor opinion corroded the increases again and the index finished the day marginally higher. The benchmark KSE-100 index showed an addition of 38.93 points, about 0.08%, to end at 47,873.26.

In a report, Arif Habib Limited said that the market traded in a close range, wavering amidst -83 points and +172 points. The report states, “Being a brief trading week, investors were hesitant to go long and favored to close intra-day positions despite the pertinent stock prices.”

The report also said that Sui Northern Gas Pipelines and Sui Southern Gas Company are the companies of the oil and gas market that hit their higher circuits on the court’s judgment in support of gas utilities to sustain the gas (UFG) benchmark. Technology stocks also showed an increase in Avanceon and maintained the level till closing.

The sectors included in this +33 points are 29+ points to oil and gas marketing companies, 10+ points to auto, -24 points to cement, and -14 to technology.

The stocks that contributed positively are listed below:
Pakistan Services (+33 points)
Sui Northern Gas Pipelines (+25 points)
Meezan Bank (+12 points)
Fauji Fertiliser (+11 points)
Sui Southern Gas Company (+8 points).

Stocks in the negative were:
Lucky Cement (-22 points)
TRG Pakistan (-21 points)
Engro Corporation (-12 points)
HBL (-10 points)
Bank Alfalah (-8 points).

Muhammad Mubashir, the JS Global analyst stated that the KSE-100 index attempted to pass 48,000 points, but investors preferred to maintain profit on the higher side due to the increase in Covid cases in Pakistan.

The total trading volumes sank to 321 million shares in comparison with Friday’s score of 348.6 million. The worth of shares traded throughout the day was Rs11.9 billion. 416 companies’ shares were traded and in the end, 226 stocks finished higher, 174 decreased and 16 continued unaltered.

The market ultimately ended at 47,873. The volume continued to be flat at 321 million shares and the following added a total of 25 percent to the total volume.
Byco Petroleum (+1.2%)
Sui Northern Gas Pipelines (+7.5%)
Al Shaheer Corporation (-1.3%)
Treet Corp (+1%)
WorldCall Telecom (+2.6%)

Mubashir concludes, “We think post-Eid performance is mainly reliant on the forthcoming result period, provincial geopolitics, and the fourth wave of Covid, and, we advise investors to avail any downside as a chance to purchase in cement, bank, exploration, and production sectors.”