Profit-taking dominated proceedings at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) for the second straight session on Thursday, pulling the KSE-100 Index down by 1,320 points.
The KSE-100 started the session with some buying, hitting an intra-day high of 90,700.23.
However, investors soon moved to locking-in gains and a selling spree pushed the index to the negative territory.
At close, the benchmark index settled at 88,966.76, down by 1319.80 points or 1.46%.
“The equity market closed on a negative note today, mainly due to profit-taking. The benchmark index remained in the red for most of the day, losing significant points in the latter half of the session,” brokerage house Ismail Iqbal Securities said in its post-market report.
Another brokerage house Topline Securities said profit-taking was observed on the back of a decline in T Bill auction on Wednesday, which could be attributed to buy on rumor and sell on news phenomena, it added.
During the Thursday’s session, MCB, HBL, MEBL, ENGRO, and EFERT lost value to weigh down on the index by -551 points, it added.
On a monthly basis, the KSE-100 Index gained 9.68% on the back of a bull-run in the market during October, which could be attributed to institutional buying, good corporate earnings announcements, and expectation of decline in policy rate in the upcoming monetary policy announcement, Topline said.
The next Monetary Policy Committee meeting is scheduled for November 4, 2024, with analysts expecting a major cut in the key policy rate.
On Wednesday, profit-taking erased all intra-day gains and threw the KSE-100 stocks in the red to close lower by 577.52 points.
Earlier, a bullish momentum had persisted at the PSX in recent weeks, on account of strong corporate results, which experts said had bolstered investor confidence.
Hub Power Company Limited (HUBCO), Pakistan’s largest Independent Power Producer (IPP), is in the process of establishing a venture namely Hubco Green (Private) Limited, dedicated to developing an Electric Vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure across the country.
The IPP shared the development in its quarterly report released to the PSX on Thursday.
The Board of Directors (BoD) of Shell Pakistan Limited (SHEL) approved changing the company’s name to the proposed ‘Wafi Energy Pakistan Limited’.
As per a notice released by SHEL, the development comes following Wafi Energy Holding Limited (Wafi) acquisition of an additional 22,165,837 ordinary shares of SHEL, representing approximately 10.36% of the company’s total issued share capital.
Globally, Asian stocks slid on Thursday as chip-sector stocks tracked overnight declines by Wall Street peers and Facebook owner Meta Platforms warned of accelerating costs for artificial intelligence.
Japan’s Nikkei share average fell 0.5% as of 0155 GMT.
South Korea’s Kospi dropped 1.3%.
North Korea stirred regional tensions by test firing what a US official said was an intercontinental ballistic missile into the sea off the reclusive nation’s east coast on Thursday.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0.2%, but mainland Chinese blue chips slipped 0.7%.
Most major stock markets in the Gulf rose in early trade on Thursday, buoyed by hopes for a potential ceasefire deal between Israel and Hezbollah.
Lebanon’s prime minister expressed hope on Wednesday that a ceasefire deal with Israel would be announced within days as Israel’s public broadcaster published what it said was a draft agreement providing for an initial 60-day truce.
The push for a ceasefire for Lebanon is taking place alongside a similar diplomatic drive to end hostilities in Gaza. Saudi Arabia’s benchmark stock index gained 0.2%, with ACWA Power Company advancing 3.9% and aluminium products manufacturer Al Taiseer Group up 0.2%.
Riyadh Air, the kingdom’s newest airline, said on Wednesday it had placed an order for 60 Airbus narrowbody A321-family jets as it prepares to start operations in 2025.
Dubai’s main share index edged 0.1% higher, with Emirates Central Cooling Systems Corp rising 2.4%.
The Qatari benchmark added 0.4%, led by a 1.9% rise in petrochemical maker Industries Qatar.
Meanwhile, the Pakistani rupee remained largely stable against the US dollar, depreciating 0.02% in the inter-bank market on Thursday. At close, the currency settled at 277.85, a loss of Re0.06 against the greenback.
Volume on the all-share index decreased to 546.27 million from 614.56 million on Wednesday.
The value of shares declined to Rs24.12 billion from Rs27.34 billion in the previous session.
K-Electric Ltd was the volume leader with 73.62 million shares, followed by B.O.Punjab with 42.67 million shares, and WorldCall Telecom with 25.90 million shares.
Shares of 437 companies were traded on Thursday, of which 137 registered an increase, 240 recorded a fall, while 60 remained unchanged.
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