Stock market depressed

KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Tuesday remained under pressure and closed in red zone due to instability in local currency.

The market opened on a positive note, however failed to sustain this momentum due to selling pressure as investors opted to book profit at available margins that forced the market to close in negative.

The benchmark KSE-100 Index hit 46,737.87 points intraday high and 46,270.13 points intraday low levels, before closing at 46,333.36 points with a net loss of 206.23 points or 0.44 percent.

Trading activity remained low as total daily volumes on ready counter decreased to 228.620 million shares as compared to 255.608 million shares traded on Monday while total daily traded value declined to Rs 8.838 billion against previous day’s Rs 9.644 billion.

BRIndex100 lost 40.78 points or 0.87 percent to close at 4,671.20 points with total daily turnover of 207.398 million shares.

BRIndex30 declined by 439.46 points or 2.49 percent to close at 17,222.21 points with total daily trading volumes of 130.743 million shares. Foreign investors also remained net sellers of shares worth $777,538. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 41 billion to Rs 7.723 trillion. Out of total 345 active scrips, 226 closed in negative and only 94 in positive while the value of 25 stocks remained unchanged.

Cnergyico PK was the volume leader with 18.326 million shares however lost Rs 0.35 to close at Rs 6.14 followed by Ghani Global Holding that declined by Rs 1.39 to close at Rs 19.36 with 18.029 million shares. WorldCall Telecom closed at Rs 1.80, down Rs 0.05 with 11.547 million shares.

Sapphire Fiber and Bhanero Textile were the top gainers increasing by Rs 67.00 and Rs 37.00 respectively to close at Rs 968.00 and Rs 1370.00 while Mari Petroleum and Philip Morris Pak were the top losers declining by Rs 26.04 and Rs 20.00 respectively to close at Rs 1735.44 and Rs 630.00.

An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the market witnessed profit-taking. The KSE-100 Index opened on a positive note but couldn’t sustain in green zone as investor opted for profit selling across the board due to weakening of Pak rupee against US Dollar. Main board activity remained dull but hefty volumes were recorded in 3rd tier stocks.

Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (down 89.2 points), E&P (down 72.0 points), Technology (down 51.0 points), Power (down 42.6 points) and Cement (down 37.2 points)

BR Automobile Assembler Index lost 0.12 points to close at 9,770.04 points with total turnover of 1.222 million shares.

BR Cement Index decreased by 50.38 points or 0.94 percent to close at 5,326.97 points with 21.169 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index fell by 85.34 points or 0.83 percent to close at 10,186.70 points with 8.609 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index declined by 102.97 points or 1.72 percent to close at 5,890.44 points with 8.209 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index lost 47.35 points or 1.2 percent to close at 3,901.31 points with 12.275 million shares. BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 3,790.04 points, down 76.09 points or 1.97 percent with 34.824 million shares.

An analyst at Topline Securities said that the Pakistan equities closed red where benchmark KSE-100 Index settled at 46,333 level, down 0.44 percent.

The day kicked off on a positive note where market make an intraday high of 206 points as investors cheered EPCL result announcement and material information’s where the company announced expansions. However some profit taking has been witnessed in the second half where major laggards were HUBC, PPL, TRG and OGDC cumulatively dented the Index by 134 points.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022