KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange on Monday remained under severe selling pressure and closed in negative as the investors opted to offload their holdings on their concerns over prevailing political and economic situation.
The benchmark KSE-100 index nosedived at 80,352.22 points intra-day low level during the session, however fresh buying supported the index to recover most of its intra-day losses. The index finally closed at 81,114.20 points, down 177.93 points or 0.22 percent.
Trading activities remained low as total daily volumes on ready counter declined to 297.994 million shares as compared to 339.323 million shares traded on last Friday while total daily traded value on the ready counter increased to Rs 14.103 billion against previous session’s Rs 12.893 billion.
BRIndex100 lost 31.11 points of 0.36 percent to close at 8,510.05 points with total daily turnover of 212.509 million shares.
BRIndex30 declined by 220.43 points or 0.86 percent to close at 25,463.86 points with total daily trading volumes of 133.773 million shares.
The foreign investors also remained on the selling side and withdrew $4.933 million from the local equity market. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 34 billion to stand at Rs 10.619 trillion. Out of total 444 active scrips, 244 closed in negative and 132 in positive while the value of 68 stocks remained unchanged.
PIA Holding Company was the volume leader with 43.078 million shares however lost Rs 0.08 to close at Rs 18.74 followed by WorldCall Telecom that closed at previous session’s closing level of Rs 1.20 without any change with 21.681 million shares. Hub Power Company declined by Rs 4.43 to close at Rs 119.34 with 20.477 million shares.
Lucky Core Industries and Mari Petroleum Company were the top gainers increasing by Rs 30.90 and Rs 16.71 respectively to close at Rs 1,051.03 and Rs 425.54 while Rafhan Maize Products Company and Unilever Pakistan Foods were the top losers declining by Rs 542.49 and Rs 149.94 respectively to close at Rs 6,804.26 and Rs 17,075.06.
An analyst at Topline Securities said that the KSE-100 index closed the trading session at 81,114, marking a decrease of 178 points, or 0.22 percent.
The main contributor to this fall was Hub Power (139 points) which fell by 3.6 percent due to concerns regarding potential revisions to its power plant contracts and payout ability. Other stocks that contributed to the downward momentum were MEBL, TRG, BAHL, and ENGRO. These stocks collectively eroded 194 points from the index.
In contrast, Mari Petroleum share price saw a drop following the distribution of bonus shares to investors, however, it managed to recover and close the day in positive territory up 4.1 percent contributing plus 130 points to the index. FFC remained strong as well and closed 2.6 percent up.
BR Automobile Assembler Index declined by 90.04 points or 0.52 percent to close at 17,066.36 points with total turnover of 5.412 million shares.
BR Cement Index lost 41.33 points or 0.52 percent to close at 7,965.71 points with 18.248 million shares.
BR Commercial Banks Index decreased by 76.93 points or 0.33 percent to close at 23,196.42 points with 15.318 million shares.
BR Power Generation and Distribution Index declined by 365.05 points or 2.24 percent to close at 15,943.86 points with 43.405 million shares.
BR Oil and Gas Index gained 50.76 points or 0.69 percent to close at 7,454.52 points with 13.464 million shares.
BR Tech. & Comm. Index fell by 38.47 points or 0.99 percent to close at 3,839.80 points with 47.558 million shares.
Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corporation said stocks closed under pressure on political uncertainty and foreign outflows.
He said Government action on IPPs tariff, concerns over outcome of tax collection shortfall and delays over privatisation of SOEs played a catalyst role in bearish close.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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