KARACHI: On Monday, the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) remained under severe pressure as a result of widespread selling in response to investor concerns about rising international commodity prices,
an increase in corona virus cases, and the possibility of a lock down.
The benchmark KSE-100 hit 45,385.97 points intra-day low level and closed at 45,612.20 points with net loss of 151.25 points or 0.33 percent. Trading activities remained very thin as daily volumes on ready counter decreased to 173.497 million shares as compared to 239.976 million shares traded on previous session.
BRIndex100 lost 31.21 points or 0.66 percent to close at 4,687.13 points with total daily turnover of 143.937 million shares.
BRIndex30 declined by 611.79 points or 3.18 percent to close at 18,651.90 points with total daily trading volumes of 111.753 million shares.
The foreign investors also remained net sellers of shares worth $256,434. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 24 billion to Rs 7.822 trillion. Out of total 336 active scrips, 218 closed in negative and 102 in positive while the value of 16 stocks remained unchanged.
WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 25.493 million shares however lost Rs 0.10 to close at Rs 2.37 followed by TRG Pakistan that declined by Rs 7.80 to close at Rs 96.45 with 20.075 million shares.
Sapphire Textile and Mehmood Textile were the top gainers increasing by Rs 55.96 and Rs 44.25 respectively to close at Rs 1050.00 and Rs 634.29 while Nestle Pakistan and Bata Pak were the top losers declining by Rs 114.25 and Rs 70.10 respectively to close at Rs 5410.00 and Rs 2099.90.
According to an analyst at Arif Habib Limited, the market has continued to be under pressure as a result of an increase in Covid-19 cases as well as higher international oil prices.
In response to alarming Covid-19 numbers, investors remained risk-averse, which kept the market gloomy throughout the day, even after the President passed a mini-budget and the Pakistani rupiah recovered against the US dollar, according to market analysts.
Because of an increase in international coal prices, the cement industry has remained in the red. The practice of value buying was observed during the last trading hour.
The market’s activity remained sideways as large volumes of 3rd tier stocks were traded in the market on Friday.
Sectors contributing to the performance include Technology and Communication (down 100.8 points), Commercial Banks (down 28.0 points), Refinery (down 13.8 points), Textile Composite (down 7.5 points) and Insurance (down 7.3 points).
BR Automobile Assembler Index lost 1.91 points or 0.02 percent to close at 8,698.24 points with total turnover of 854,301 shares. BR Cement Index gained 19.85 points or 0.35 percent to close at 5,751.97 points with 5.000 million shares.
BR Commercial Banks Index decreased by 34.06 points or 0.33 percent to close at 10,172.76 points with 9.417 million shares. BR Power Generation and Distribution Index inched up by 19.32 points or 0.32 percent to close at 6,030.46 points with 6.177 million shares.BR Oil and Gas Index closed at 3,892.82 points, down 6.94 points or 0.18 percent with 8.677 million shares.
BR Tech. & Comm. Index declined by 124.95 points or 3.03 percent to close at 4,005.23 points with 63.404 million shares.
An analyst at Topline Securities said that Pakistan equities closed negative where the benchmark KSE-100 Index settled at 45,612 level, down 0.33 percent. Investors’ concern over higher international commodities prices led the market to open sideways, where market make an intraday low of minus 377 points.
Initial pressure came from TRG where stock touches its lower limit in first hour of the session followed suit by other Technology stocks as AVN, OCTOPUS and SYS closed lower.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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