Downtrend persists

Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) Monday ended lower on institutional profit-taking. The benchmark KSE-100 index lost 134 points to close 39,017 points down from 39,151 points. Hammad Aman, Manager Equity Sales Topline Securities, said that declining international oil prices along with some profit-taking led the index to decline by 0.34 percent.
Volumes also declined by 24 percent and overall some 165 million shares were traded on the first trading of the week compared to 219.5 million on Friday. Trading value decreased by 17 percent to Rs 9.7 billion. BYCO and AGL led the volume with approx 33 million shares traded, he informed.
PPL and OGDC declined by 2 percent and 1.6 percent, respectively while contributing 61 points to the fall of the index. Interest in refineries led ATRL and PRL to gain 1.9 percent to 3.4 percent, he maintained. Ahmed Saeed Khan, analyst at JS, said that volatility prevailed on the first day of rollover week as the index shed around 134 points to close at 39,017 points.
The index heavyweight oil sector remained under pressure throughout the day weighed by falling crude oil prices triggered by US producers that increased drilling despite abundant supplies, deepening global glut, he added. The major index movers of the aforementioned sector today were OGDC (-1.84 percent) and PPL (-2.01 percent). In anticipation of lower revenues this quarter in comparison to previous quarters the fertiliser sector remained under pressure.
FFBL (-0.87 percent) and FFC (-0.97 percent) were the biggest index movers of the sector and are due to announce their half year results tomorrow and the day after respectively. PSMC (+2.17 percent) and INDU (+0.93 percent) were the top performers of the auto sector today that rallied on the back of depreciating Yen. The overall sentiment of the market remains positive but caution during the rollover week and result season is advised, he added.
"Stocks closed lower on institutional profit taking in oil scrips after sharp fall in global crude prices," said Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Securities. Foreign outflows, subdued exports data for Jul-Jun FY16 and falling banking spreads played a catalyst role in bearish close in the earnings season amid support in textile stocks on rising local cotton prices, he added.
Market capitalisation increased by Rs 26 billion to Rs 7.850 trillion. Trading took place in 334 scrips, of which 144 closed positive, 172 negative and that of 18 remained unchanged. Byco Petroleum, Agritech Limited, Pak Refinery, TRG Pak Ltd and Pak Elektron were leading scrips with trading shares of 18.9 million, 14.15 million, 10.53 million, 6.9 million and 6.8 million, respectively. Rafhan Maize and Pak Tobacco were the top gainers with Rs 176.00 and Rs 55.91 to close at Rs 7,475.00 and Rs 1,183.90, respectively. Bata (Pak) and Hinopak Motors were the top losers with Rs 175.10 and Rs 47.13 to close at Rs 3,825.00 and Rs 895.57, respectively.