KSE-100 closes marginally lower as late-session buying trims losses

The Pakistan Stock Exchange’s (PSX) benchmark KSE-100 Index closed the first trading day of the week lower by 178 points after witnessing selling pressure in the first half, which subsided in the latter hours.

The KSE-100 started the session with some buying, hitting an intra-day high of 81,321.64, followed by selling pressure that pushed the index to an intra-day low of 80,352.22.

However, the bulls regained their grip in the final hours and helped the index trim the earlier losses.

At close, the benchmark index settled at 81,114.20, down by 177.93 points or 0.22%.

Earlier, bearish sentiment was witnessed at the PSX as investors resorted to trimming their positions over fear of a wider conflict in the Middle East with the KSE-100 losing nearly 800 points during intra-day trading.

The overall downward momentum was primarily driven by HUBC, MEBL, TRG, BAHL, and ENGRO, which collectively eroded 334 points from the index, brokerage house Topline Securities said.

“Hub Power’s shares experienced a significant decline due to concerns regarding potential revisions to power plant contracts,” it said. “Mari Petroleum saw a drop following the distribution of bonus shares to investors; however, it managed to recover and close the day in positive territory.”

Experts said rising geopolitical tensions played on investors’ minds, and were reflected on the local front.

In a key development, Pakistan’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew by a stable 3.07% in the fourth quarter (April-June) of fiscal year 2023-24, estimates released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Monday showed.

“The economy has posted a stable growth of 3.07% during Q4 of FY 2023-24,” stated a press release issued by the PBS after the 110th National Accounts Committee (NAC) meeting.

Hub Power Company Limited (HUBCO), Pakistan’s largest Independent Power Producer (IPP), announced plans to enter the mining sector for the exploration of lithium and develop a battery manufacturing unit.

The company shared its plans during the Annual General Meeting (AGM) held on Monday, said brokerage house Arif Habib Limited (AHL), which attended the AGM.

Kohinoor Power Company Limited (KOHP) announced that it was no longer pursuing a merger with Saritow Spinning Mills Limited (SSML), citing economic and operational conditions.

During the previous week, PSX remained under pressure and closed in the red zone as the investors opted to offload their holdings on available margins.

The benchmark KSE-100 index plunged by 782.32 points on a week-on-week basis and closed at 81,292.13 points. Foreign investors remained on the selling side and withdrew $12.443 million from the local equity market during the week.

During the previous week, Pakistan received the first tranche of Special Drawing Rights (SDR) 760 million, equivalent to $1.03 billion, from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

In a key development, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb stated Sunday that Pakistan’s economy’s “DNA needed to be fundamentally changed” to ensure that the latest IMF agreement is the country’s final one. The minister also stated that Pakistan must declare a “nuclear war” against the cash-based economy as part of the reforms.

Globally, Asia share markets turned hesitant on Monday as strife in the Middle East offset more stimulus measures in China, while the Nikkei dived on concerns Japan’s new prime minister favoured normalising interest rates.

The rush of stimulus helped outweigh a poor manufacturing survey and lift the blue-chip CSI300 another 3.0%, having already jumped 16% last week.

The Shanghai Composite climbed 4.4%, on top of last week’s 13% rally.

Continued Israeli strikes across Lebanon added geopolitical uncertainty to the mix, though the risk of increased supply still restrained oil prices. The week is packed with major US economic data including a payrolls report that could decide whether the Federal Reserve delivers another outsized rate cut in November.

Meanwhile, the Pakistani rupee remained largely stable against the US dollar on Monday, depreciating 0.03% in the inter-bank market. At close, the currency settled at 277.71, a loss of Re0.07 against the US dollar.

Volume on the all-share index decreased to 297.99 million from 339.32 million on Friday.

However, the value of shares increased to Rs14.10 billion from Rs12.89 billion in the previous session.

PIA Holding Company was the volume leader with 43.08 million shares, followed by WorldCall Telecom with 21.68 million shares, and Hub Power Co.XD with 20.48 million shares.

Shares of 444 companies were traded on Monday, of which 132 registered an increase, 244 recorded a fall, while 68 remained unchanged.