KARACHI - Profit-taking halted the upward trajectory of Pakistan Stock Exchange on Thursday as 100-share index closed flat.
Volatility prevailed in the market as the index, after hitting an intra-day high of 193 points and intra-day low of 22 points, finally closed at 41,252.17 points after a marginal decline of 1.29 points, dealers said.
ISL and MUGHAL gained to close on their respective upper circuits. HUBC (0.98%) gained on the back of the news that Thar Energy Limited (TEL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hub Power Company, has applied for a license from NEPRA to set up a 330-megawatt local coal-based power generation facility at Thar Block II. Mixed sentiments prevailed in the E&P sector on the back of nominal decline in crude oil prices amid concerns that US shale producers might their increase production if the price surges above current levels. OGDC (down 0.10pc) and PPL (0.17pc) in the E&P sector closed marginally lower from their previous day close, stated analyst Nabeel Haroon.
Volumes increased by 17.8% to 774m shares while value marginally increased by 0.5% to Rs18.1b/ $174m. BOP and WTL led the volumes with 156m shares traded.
Banking stocks like HBL and MCB declined by 1% and 1.6% respectively. After rising in the last few days, profit-taking led GHNL, MTL and PSMC to decline between 1.1%-2.1%. Interest in engineering stocks led MUGHAL, ISL and INIL to close their upper limit of 5%, brokers said.
