Stock market recoils

KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Friday witnessed a rangebound session as the investors remained cautious and avoided taking fresh positions.

Owing to the ongoing political uneasiness and S&P global credit rating down by one notch to “CCC+” from “B”, the market tanked as soon as the bell rang and kept losing ground during both sessions, which caused investors to stay away from the market, experts said.

The benchmark KSE-100 Index hit 39,936.93 points intra-day high and 39,498.27 points intraday low before closing at 39,669.20 points, down 169.13 points or 0.42 percent.

Trading activity also remained low as total volumes on ready counter decreased to 132.633 million shares as compared to 194.531 million shares traded Thursday while daily traded value on ready counter declined to Rs 4.590 billion against previous session’s Rs 5.486 billion.

BRIndex100 lost 23.44 points or 0.6 percent to close at 3,915.61 points with total daily turnover of 111.720 million shares.

BRIndex30 declined by 162.08 points or 1.16 percent to close at 13,805.88 points with total daily trading volumes of 69.715 million shares.

Foreign investors however remained net buyers of shares worth $543,385. The market capitalization declined by Rs 37 billion to Rs 6.325 trillion. Out of total 327 active scrips, 189 closed in negative and 104 in positive while the value of 34 stocks remained unchanged.

Hub Power Co was the volume leader with 8.316 million shares and increased by Rs 2.16 to close at Rs 62.89 followed by PPL that surged by Rs 2.82 to close at Rs 57.47 with 6.853 million shares. Pak Refinery lost Rs 0.60 to close at Rs 12.63 with 6.114 million shares. Pak Services and Premium Textile were the top gainers increasing by Rs 68.00 and Rs 27.10 respectively to close at Rs 1500.00 and Rs 669.38 while Rafhan Maize and Nestle Pakistan were the top losers declining by Rs 511.00 and Rs 385.10 respectively to close at Rs 7400.00 and Rs 4865.00.

An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that a rangebound session was observed at the PSX. Owing to the ongoing political uneasiness, and S&P global credit rating down by one notch to “CCC+” from “B”, the market tanked as soon as the bell rang and kept losing ground during both sessions, which caused investors to shy away from the market, decent volumes were recorded at main-board while third-tier equities continued to garner attention.

Sectors contributing to the performance include Technology & Communication (down 92.1 points), Fertilizer (down 75.8 points), Cement (down 64.4 points), Commercial Banks (down 34.6 points), and Food & Personal Care Products (down 33.8 points).

BR Automobile Assembler Index gained 26.32 points or 0.36 percent to close at 7,430.22 points with total turnover of 6.643 million shares.

BR Cement Index declined by 82.09 points or 2.14 percent to close at 3,751.58 with 9.757 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index fell by 34.69 points or 0.43 percent to close at 7,946.89 points with 7.266 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index increased by 139.6 points or 2.23 percent to close at 6,396.78 points with 13.479 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index added 30.39 points or 0.84 percent to close at 3,667.72 points with 16.832 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index plunged by 109.49 points or 2.49 percent to close at 4,281.27 points with 17.294 million shares.

Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corporation said that stocks closed lower amid political uncertainty, cut in S&P global long-term sovereign credit ratings to “CCC+” and short term to “C” and security unrest in the federal capital.

He said political crises in Punjab, concerns over the IMF EFF review delays on rift over PDL, budgeted flood losses and rupee instability played a catalyst role in bearish close.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022