KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Thursday witnessed a bearish trend as investors opted to offload their holdings due to speculation of policy rate hike in the coming days following Wednesday’s T-Bills cutoff yields that were on the higher side, experts said.
The market opened in red zone and remained under pressure throughout the session as the prevailing political uncertainty kept the investors at bay.
The benchmark KSE-100 Index declined by 329.09 points or 0.80 percent and closed below 41,000 psychological level at 40,838.51 points. The index hit 41,203.25 points intraday high and 40,773.31 points intraday low.
Trading activity also remained low as daily volumes on ready counter decreased to 150.264 million shares as compared to 196.543 million shares traded Wednesday. The daily traded value on ready counter declined to Rs 5.772 billion against previous session’s Rs 6.413 billion.
BRIndex100 lost 40.19 points or 0.98 percent to close at 4,080.79 points with total daily turnover of 137.651 million shares.
BRIndex30 decreased by 182.59 points or 1.25 percent to close at 14,434.23 points with total daily trading volumes of 99.486 million shares.
Foreign investor also remained net sellers of shares worth $436,019. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 56 billion to Rs 6.333 trillion. Out of total 319 active scrips, 220 closed in negative and only 75 in positive while the value of 24 stocks remained unchanged.
WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 14.163 million shares and closed at Rs 1.25, down Rs 0.01 followed by Maple Leaf that lost Rs 0.25 to close at Rs 23.78 with 10.480 million shares. Kot Addu Power gained Rs 0.61 to close at Rs 28.91 with 9.688 million shares.
Goodluck Industries and Khyber Tobacco were the top gainers increasing by Rs 50.00 and Rs 27.53 respectively to close at Rs 1000.00 and Rs 394.65 while Bhanero Textile and Reliance Cotton were the top losers declining by Rs 78.84 and Rs 45.00 respectively to close at Rs 1100.01 and Rs 600.00.
An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said bears took charge at the PSX after consecutive bullish sessions. The benchmark KSE-100 Index opened in the red zone due to speculation of a policy rate hike in the coming days after Wednesday’s T-Bills cutoff yields were at the higher side leading the index to plunge down and make an intraday low of minus 395.08 points. Prevailing political uncertainty kept the investors at bay, however across the board volumes remained healthy.
Sectors contributing to the performance include Commercial Banks (down 80.4 points), E&P (down 78.7 points), Technology & Communication (down 48.5 points), Cement (down 37.0 points) and OMCs (down 21.3 points).
BR Automobile Assembler Index gained 43.3 points or 0.59 percent to close at 7,349.75 points with total turnover of 7.806 million shares.
BR Cement Index decreased by 46.0 points or 1.21 percent to close at 3,742.47 points with 22.093 million shares.
BR Commercial Banks Index fell by 75.12 points or 0.92 percent to close at 8,108.91 points with 16.965 million shares.
BR Power Generation and Distribution Index increased by 67.55 points or 1.0 percent to close at 6,819.66 points with 23.267 million shares.
BR Oil and Gas Index declined by 57.57 points or 1.42 percent to close at 4,005.04 points with 20.641 million shares.
BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 4,301.20 points, down 54.21 points or 1.24 percent with 21.374 million shares.
Mubashir Anis Naviwala at JS Global Capital said that the KSE-100 Index witnessed pressure throughout the day due to expectations of further monetary tightening after Wednesday’s auction. Profit-taking was witnessed across the board as benchmark KSE-100 closed at 40,838, losing 329 points.
Traded volume stood at 150 million shares where WTL (down 0.8 percent), MLCF (down 1.0 percent), KAPCO (up 2.2 percent), HUBC (up 1.7 percent) and DFML (up 1.3 percent) were the highest contributors.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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