KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) Monday closed negative on lackluster activity on the first trading day of the week due to uncertainty over the outcome of Pak-IMF talks and political uncertainty.
BRIndex100 lost 20.49 points to close at 4,712.52 points down from previous close of 4,733.01 points. Total share trading volume was 149.48 million and Hum Network was the most traded company in BRIndex100 with a volume of 50.73 million.
BRIndex30 opened at 20,339.35 points on Monday and finally closed at 20,221.14 points, which was 118.21 points or 0.58 percent lower than previous close. Total volume at BRIndex30 was 121.446 million shares.
The benchmark KSE-100 Index lost 160 points to close at 45,418 points on Monday compared to 45,578 points on Friday. Share trading volumes on ready counter was very dull as overall some 166 million shares were traded as against 300 million in the previous session. Market capitalization declined by Rs 14.56 billion to Rs 7.848 trillion. Out of total 320 active scrips, 155 closed in positive and 147 in negative while the value of 18 stocks remained unchanged.
Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corp said that stocks closed bearish on uncertainty over outcome of Pak IMF talks for release of EFF tranche. Reports of IMF seeking Govt banking deposits in SBP treasury single account pressured banking sector, he added.
He said that foreign outflows, rupee instability and concerns for ongoing political noise played a catalyst role in bearish close.
BR Automobile Assembler Index declined by 20.61 points or 0.25 percent to close at 8,362.05 points with a total turnover of 458,220 shares. BR Cement Index closed at 5,781.39 with a net negative change of 95.41 points or a percentage change decline of 1.62. Total turnover at BR cement was 7.185 million shares.
BR Commercial Banks Index lost 109.80 points or 1.08 percent to close at 10,060.43 points with a total turnover of 14.854 million shares. BR Power Generation and Distribution Index closed at 5,488.98 with a net positive change of 26.15 points or a percentage change of 0.48 and a total turnover of 2,523,809.
BR Oil and Gas Index gained 10.75 points or a percentage change of 0.28 to close at 3,899.63 points with a total turnover of 2,310,920. BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 4,153.12 points with a decline of 11.34 points or 0.27 percent. A total turnover at BR Tech. & Comm. Index was 81.905 million shares.
Analysts at JS said that benchmark index witnessed lackluster activity. Market activity remained dull due to the start of rollover week with KSE100 closing at 45,418, down 160 points. Major contribution to total market volume of 166 million shares came from HUMNL (-0.3%), WTL (0%), BOP (-0.2%), GGL (0.8%) and TRG (0%).
Negative contributors to the index were MEBL, LUCK, HBL, MLCF and ENGRO. On the result front FFBL and DGKC announced their result with EPS of Rs 1.76 and Rs 2.07, respectively.
The PSX on Monday fully operationalised its new trading platform Designated Time Schedule (DTS), of which some technical issues were created and the market report was delayed for many hours.
The new trading system would fully replace Karachi Automated Trading System (KATS), which was in operation since 1997. The new trading system is a built-in surveillance system and capable of preventing and detecting data leakages and any theft attempts. The key changes to the DTS are extension of 30 minutes for continuous trading session, reduction of post close session to 10 minutes and reduction of break period to 1 minute.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021