KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange remained under pressure and closed in negative zone amid pre-budget uncertainty and cautious activity ahead of the SBP policy rate announcement.
The benchmark KSE-100 Index plunged by 501.46 points or 0.68 percent and closed at 73,252.56 points. After positive opening, the index hit 73,915.45 points intraday high however dropped into negative zone to hit 72,981.35 points intraday low due to selling pressure.
Trading activities remained low as total daily volumes on ready counter decreased to 350.721 million shares as compared to 559.550 million shares traded on last Friday while total daily traded value on the ready counter declined to Rs 10.180 billion against previous session’s Rs 20.208 billion.
BRIndex100 decreased by 68.22 points or 0.89 percent to close at 7,625.76 points with total daily trading volumes of 184.280 million shares.
BRIndex30 declined by 331.33 points or 1.34 percent to close at 24,359.72 points with total daily trading volumes of 128.781 million shares.
Foreign investors also remained net sellers of shares worth $1.194 million. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 49 billion to Rs 9.854 trillion. Out of total 434 active scrips, 241 closed in negative and 133 in positive while the value of 60 stocks remained unchanged.
Pervez Ahmed Co was the volume leader with 57.418 million shares and gained Rs 0.13 to close at Rs 1.63 followed by Amtex Limited that declined by Rs 1.00 to close at Rs 4.56 with 33.746 million shares. WorldCall Telecom inched up by Rs 0.02 to close at Rs 1.34 with 31.276 million shares.
Hoechst Pakistan and Service Industries were the top gainers increasing by Rs 49.02 and Rs 24.04 respectively to close at Rs 1,449.02 and Rs 973.75 while Unilever Pakistan Foods and Sapphire Fibres were the top losers declining by Rs 99.50 and Rs 90.86 respectively to close at Rs 18,100.50 and Rs 1,408.55.
An analyst at Topline Securities said that Pakistan equities began the day positively, with the KSE-100 index reaching an intraday high of 73,915 points (up 161 points or 0.22 percent) in the morning. However, the index could not maintain this momentum due to a selling spree at the day’s peak.
The selling pressure can be attributed to investor concerns over potential tax increases on dividends, capital gains, and interest income in the upcoming budget, as well as uncertainty surrounding the monetary policy announcement.
The decline was significantly impacted by HUBC, FFC, MEBL, OGDC, and PPL, which collectively subtracted 254 points from the index. In contrast, SRVI, PSO, SYS, NATF, and MTL contributed a combined 65 points to the index’s positive side.
BR Automobile Assembler Index gained 51.74 points or 0.3 percent to close at 17,136.05 points with total turnover of 8.965 million shares.
BR Cement Index lost 43.53 points or 0.57 percent to close at 7,573.66 points with 32.242 million shares.
BR Commercial Banks Index declined by 158.69 points or 0.81 percent to close at 19,415.01 points with 12.195 million shares.
BR Power Generation and Distribution Index plunged by 260.77 points or 1.48 percent to close at 17,402.65 points with 16.850 million shares.
BR Oil and Gas Index decreased by 76.76 points or 1.21 percent to close at 6,252.62 points with 13.346 million shares.
BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 4,009.75 points, down 2.05 points or 0.05 percent with 57.741 million shares.
Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corporation said stocks closed under pressure amid pre budget uncertainty and cautious activity ahead of SBP policy rate announcement.
He said surging power tariff, IMF conditions on tax measures for the federal budget FY25 and uncertainty over rollover of $15 billion China IPPs loan repayments played a catalyst role in bearish close.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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