Equities drift lower

KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange on Thursday witnessed a rangebound session and closed on a negative zone as investors opted to book profits on available margins.

The market opened in the green zone but failed to maintain momentum since the investors chose to remain on the sidelines given the country’s current macroeconomic situation.

The benchmark KSE-100 Index decreased by 167.68 points or 0.40 percent and closed at 41,651.61 points. The index hit 41,929.96 points intraday high and 41,597.32 points intraday low.

The daily trading volumes on ready counter stood at 227.834 million shares as compared to 221.489 million shares traded on Wednesday while total daily traded value on ready counter declined to Rs 4.059 billion against previous session’s Rs 5.863 billion.

BRIndex100 lost 24.73 points or 0.59 percent to close at 4,158.33 points with total daily turnover of 161.458 million shares.

BRIndex30 declined by 125.1 points or 0.81 percent to close at 15,326.33 points with total daily trading volumes of 76.500 million shares.

Foreign investors however remained net sellers of shares worth $334,220. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 29 billion to Rs 6.629 trillion. Out of total 330 active scrips, 205 closed in negative and 104 in positive while the value of 21 stocks remained unchanged.

Kohinoor Spinning was the volume leader with 25.274 million shares and gained Rs 0.42 to close at Rs 3.57 followed by Hum Network that inched up by Rs 0.49 to close at Rs 6.03 with 23.689 million shares. Hascol Petroleum lost Rs 0.20 to close at Rs 7.71 with 13.059 million shares.

Pak Services and Blessed Textile were the top gainers increasing by Rs 78.63 and Rs 14.99 respectively to close at Rs 1127.40 and Rs 365.00 while Sanofi-Aventis and Shield Corp were the top losers declining by Rs 78.75 and Rs 23.09, respectively to close at Rs 971.25 and Rs 284.91.

An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that a rangebound session was witnessed at the PSX. The market opened in the green zone but failed to maintain momentum since the investors chose to remain on the sidelines given country’s current macroeconomic situation, resulting in the benchmark KSE-100 index to close in the red. Volumes on the main-board dried up as activity remained subdued, though third-tier stocks remained in the spotlight.

Sectors contributing to the performance include Technology & Communication (down 55.8 points), Commercial Banks (down 36.7 points), Cement (down 35.8 points), Power Generation & Distribution (down 24.2 points) and Pharmaceuticals (down 21.2 points).

BR Automobile Assembler Index gained 6.19 points or 0.07 percent to close at 8,334.89 points with total turnover of 12.251 million shares.

BR Cement Index declined by 44.12 points or 1.09 percent to close at 4,021.11 points with 21.065 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index decreased by 37.21 points or 0.44 percent to close at 8,357.34 points with 7.626 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index plunged by 81.02 points or 1.19 percent to close at 6,708.68 points with 5.511 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index inched down by 13.33 points or 0.35 percent to close at 3,798.64 points with 29.876 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index fell by 61.85 points or 1.30 percent to close at 4,682.00 points with 42.877 million shares.

Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corporation said that stocks closed under pressure as investor weigh JP Morgan report projecting the SBP policy rate to surge by 400bps by end of FY23 to 20 percent under IMF pressure on inflation, tapered remittances and OICCI business confidence index survey hitting negative 4 percent.

He said Pak rupee instability, and concerns for economic uncertainty played a catalyst role in bearish close.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022