KARACHI: A bearish trend continued on Pakistan Stock Exchange Tuesday due to rising political noise, flood loss and macroeconomic worries.
The market opened on a positive note, however failed to continue this momentum and heavy selling pressure forced the market to close in red zone.
The benchmark KSE-100 Index hit 43,053.14 points intraday high and 42,103.77 points intraday low before closing at 42,195.26 points, down 309.08 points or 0.73 percent.
Daily volumes on ready counter increased to 237.670 million shares as compared to 229.211 million shares traded on Monday while total daily traded value on ready counter increased to Rs 7.315 billion against previous day’s Rs 7.284 billion.
BRIndex100 decreased by 38.97 points or 0.91 percent to close at 4,221.03 points with total daily turnover of 212.902 million shares.
BRIndex30 declined by 229.91 points or 1.48 percent to close at 15,294.41 points with total daily trading volumes of 165.592 million shares.
Foreign investors however remained net buyers of shares worth $124,524. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 56 billion to Rs 7.014 trillion. Out of total 338 active scrips, 189 closed in negative and 122 in positive while the value of 27 stocks remained unchanged.
K-Electric was the volume leader with 38.181 million shares however lost Rs 0.19 to close at Rs 3.34 followed by WorldCall Telecom that closed at Rs 1.28, up Rs 0.01 with 13.744 million shares. Unity Foods gained Rs 0.07 to close at Rs 22.99 with 12.878 million shares.
Sapphire Textile and Rafhan Maize were the top gainers increasing by Rs 75.82 and Rs 50.00 respectively to close at Rs 1,086.83 and Rs 10,000.00 while Colgate Palmolive and Indus Motor Co were the top losers declining by Rs 54.12 and Rs 28.66 respectively to close at Rs 2,325.38 and Rs 991.43.
An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the market opened in the positive zone as the International Monetary Fund’s executive board approved the extended loan facility for Pakistan. However, later in the day investors opted for profit taking across the board which made the index to close in the red. Main board volumes remained decent although hefty volumes were witnessed in the 3rd tier stocks.
Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (down 96.0 points), Fertilizer (down 48.9 points), Cements (down 34.0 points), E&P (down 31.85 points) and Chemicals (down 30.5 points).
BR Automobile Assembler Index lost 41.45 points or 0.44 percent to close at 9,336.79 points with total turnover of 998,527 shares.
BR Cement Index decreased by 42.34 points or 0.96 percent to close at 4,384.37 points with 26.559 million shares.
BR Commercial Banks Index declined by 92.45 points or 1.03 percent to close at 8,920.36 points with 8.301 million shares.
BR Power Generation and Distribution Index fell by 38.24 points or 0.67 percent to close at 5,670.35 points with 46.836 million shares.
BR Oil and Gas Index inched down by 24.18 points or 0.62 percent to close at 3,891.34 points with 15.526 million shares.
BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 3,752.48 points, down 22.25 points or 0.59 percent with 36.565 million shares.
Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corporation said that stocks closed bearish on institutional taking in blue chip scrips on global equity selloff and investor concerns for economic uncertainty on $10 billion expected flood losses, ailing SOEs.
Positive sentiments remained in early session on strong rupee, fall in government dollar bond yields amid IMF board approval on revival of EFF program.
He said IMF assertion over tight monetary policy amid higher inflation, concerns for weakening exports on global recession and surging energy prices played a catalyst role in bearish activity.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022