Selling pressure persists at KSE-100, market falls 1%

Selling pressure persisted at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Monday and the KSE-100 Index declined 1% owing to economic and political uncertainties.

Delay in resumption of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme drove sell-off at the equity market.

At close on Monday, the KSE-100 Index recorded a decrease of 411.5 points or 1% to close at 40,918.45.

KSE-100 remains under pressure, falls 0.87%

Trading began on a mixed note and the selling spell gripped the market in early hours. The market declined at a steady pace throughout the session.

Automobile, cement, chemical, fertiliser and oil spaces closed red while banking sector ended the session on mixed note.

A report from Arif Habib Limited stated that a negative session was witnessed at PSX.

“The KSE-100 began on a positive note, but bears quickly took over as the index lost steam and ended the session in the red, owing to the state’s economic and political uncertainties, plunging the index to an intraday low of 420.71 points,” it said. “Considering that investors chose to be cautious while trading, main board volumes dried up, while side board scrips dominated the volume board.”

Capital Stake, in its report, said that bears dominated the PSX on first session of the week.

“Indices traded in red for most part of the day while volumes surged from last close,” it said. “Ambiguity surrounding revival of the IMF loan program as well as turbulence on the political front, helped bears run amok.”

On the economic front, rupee sustained significant losses against the US dollar and depreciated Rs2.32 or 0.82% in the inter-bank market on Monday to settle at 284.03.

Sectors painting the benchmark KSE-100 index in red included oil and gas exploration (127.90 points), fertilizer (75.56 points) and cement (59.93 points).

Volume on the all-share index rose to 195.5 million from 172.6 million on Friday. The value of shares traded fell to Rs5 billion from Rs8 billion recorded in the previous session.

Unity Foods was the volume leader with 25.05 million shares followed by WorldCall Telecom with 16.64 million shares and Fauji Foods with 15.2 million shares.

Shares of 310 companies were traded on Monday, of which 124 registered an increase, 169 recorded a fall and 17 remained unchanged.