KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed a lackluster session on the first trading day of the week on inflationary concerns and institutional profit-taking.
The benchmark KSE-100 Index closed at 47,115 points on Monday against 47,296 points on Friday, showing a decrease of 181 points. Trading volumes decreased from 469.8 million to 364.9 million shares.
On Monday, BRIndex100 lost 40.26 points or 0.81 percent to close at 4,928.75 points. It touched an intraday high of 4,987.09 points and an intraday low of 4,920.47 points. Total volume at BRIndex100 was 298.072 million and Hum Network was the most traded company in with a volume of 39.57 million shares.
BRIndex30 opened at 22,212.57 points and finally closed at 21,952.08 points, which was 260.49 points or 1.17 percent lower than previous close. It touched an intraday high of 22,399.96 points and an intraday low of 21,889.35 points with total volume of 217.224 million shares.
Market capitalization decreased by Rs 51 billion to Rs 8.045 trillion. Out of 368 active scrips, 125 closed in positive and 228 in negative while the value of 15 stocks remained unchanged.
Hum Network was the volume leader with 39.57 million shares and it closed at Rs 7.24 followed by Telecard Limited that closed at Rs 19.02 with 30.08 million shares. F. Nat. Equities ranked third with 26 million shares and its share prices closed at Rs 103.04.
Nestle Pakistan and Bata Pak were the top gainers and increased by Rs 60.00 and Rs 42.00 respectively to close at Rs 5,850.00 and Rs 1,890.00 respectively. Rafhan Maize and Sapphire Tex were the top losers declining by Rs 400.00 and Rs 87.60 respectively to close at Rs 9,350.00 and Rs 1,080.40.
Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the market continued to remain range-bound today as inflationary concerns heated up among investors after the statement came from the Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance that IMF has asked the Government to further hike levy on petroleum products.
Textile sector remained under pressure as the Ministry of Energy (Petroleum Division) had already moved a summary to the federal cabinet for ending subsidized gas supply to the industrial sector including captive power plants immediately. Activity continued to remain side-ways as the market witnessed hefty volumes in the 3rd tier stocks. On the flip-side, Institutional activity stayed lackluster. In the last trading hour, profit taking was witnessed across the board mainly led by the technology sector.
Sectors contributing to the performance include Technology (-45pts), E&P (-28pts), Banks (-26pts), Pharma (-20pts) and Engineering (-19pts). Average traded value also decreased by 19.8% to reach US$ 75.0mn as against US$ 93.5 million.
Ahsan Mehanti Arif Habib Corp said that stocks closed lower on institutional profit taking in the post earnings season. Pressure on economic uncertainty amid surging trade deficit to $3.8 billion in Oct’21, surging circular debt near to Rs 2.3 trillion, foreign outflows and rupee instability played a catalyst role in bearish close, he added.
According to Topline market review, a lackluster session was observed at the bourse with the KSE 100 Index printing an intra-day high of 47,442 (up 0.31%) but witnessed selling pressure near the close to settler near at 47,047 points, down 0.53 percent.
Uncertainty over the IMF program kept the investors at bay. Expectations of a gas price hike coupled with higher international oil prices kept inflationary concerns intact and market gains in check.
BR Automobile Assembler Index declined 50.09 points or 0.57 percent closed at 8,805.94 points with a total turnover of 2.314 million. BR Cement Index closed at 6,422.92 points with a net negative change of 14.43 points or a percentage change of 0.22 and a total turnover of 15.447 million.
BR Commercial Banks Index lost 75.23 points to settle at 10,189.75 points with a total turnover of 11.355 million shares. BR Power Generation and Distribution Index closed at 5,488.46 points with a net negative change of 28.19 points or a percentage change of 0.51 and a total turnover of 3.92 million shares.
BR Oil and Gas Index closed at 3,886.00 points with a decline of 42.56 points or a percentage with a total turnover of 16.464 million shares. BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 4,601.66 points, down 39.64 points with a total turnover of 112.965 million shares.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021