KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Tuesday witnessed a bearish trend due to heavy selling on investor concerns over the delay in getting final approvals from the IMF board for the release of 9th tranche of the Extended Fund Facility.
The market opened in positive, however across-the-board selling pressure forced the market to close in deep red with heavy losses.
The benchmark KSE-100 Index plunged by 566.79 points or 1.36 percent and closed at 41,150.16 points. The index hit 41,848.01 points intraday high and 41,046.13 points intraday low.
The daily trading volumes on ready counter decreased to 187.532 million shares as compared to 192.412 million shares traded on Monday while total daily traded value increased to Rs 7.858 billion against previous session’s Rs 7.661 billion.
BRIndex100 decreased by 72.81 points or 1.74 percent to close at 4,106.30 points with total daily turnover of 172.920 million shares. BRIndex30 declined by 474.71 points or 3.13 percent to close at 14,684.86 points with total daily trading volumes of 111.215 million shares.
Foreign investors also remained net sellers of shares worth $83,398. The market capitalization declined by Rs 76 billion to Rs 6.480 trillion. Out of total 316 active scrips, 208 closed in negative and only 79 in positive while the value of 29 stocks remained unchanged.
SNGP was the volume leader with 16.099 million shares however declined by Rs 3.39 to close at Rs 44.03 followed by WorldCall Telecom that lost Rs 0.04 to close at Rs 1.23 with 14.918 million shares. OGDC plunged by Rs 4.86 to close at Rs 93.94 with 12.752 million shares.
Rafhan Maize and Goodluck Industries were the top gainers increasing by Rs 382.50 and Rs 50.00 respectively to close at Rs 8450.00 and Rs 900.00 while Unilever Foods and Nestle Pakistan were the top losers declining by Rs 1499.50 and Rs 51.00 respectively to close at Rs 21000.50 and Rs 5399.00.
An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that a bearish session was recorded at PSX. The index opened in the green zone, but soon witnessed profit-taking by investors across-the-board due to which, the index touched an intraday low of minus 669.92 points. Investors mainly booked profits in E&P sector which showed tremendous growth during last few days, as investors booked short term gains. Moreover, delay in getting final approvals from IMF board for the release of 9th tranche of the IMF’s Extended Fund Facility triggered profit selling. Healthy volumes were observed across the board with E&P sector leading the board.
Sectors contributing to the performance include Technology & Communication (down 147.3 points), E&P (down 131.9 points), Commercial Banks (down 105.8 points), Cement (down 57.5 points) and OMCs (down 6.8 points).
BR Automobile Assembler Index inched down by 28.35 points or 0.39 percent to close at 7,313.81 points with total turnover of 3.388 million shares.
BR Cement Index fell by 75.31 points or 1.99 percent to close at 3,718.27 points with 16.500 million shares.
BR Commercial Banks Index decreased by 101.49 points or 1.23 percent to close at 8,138.57 points with 8.512 million shares.
BR Power Generation and Distribution Index lost 68.9 points or 1.03 percent to close at 6,639.79 points with 11.282 million shares.
BR Oil and Gas Index declined by 100.63 points or 2.33 percent to close at 4,226.45 points with 54.325 million shares.
BR Tech. & Comm. Index plunged by 164.38 points or 3.81 percent to close at 4,145.54 points with 38.955 million shares.
“After touching a high of 41,849 points early in the day, the KSE-100 Index witnessed a downward trend throughout the session closing in at 41,150 points, down 1.4 percent,” Mubashir Anis Naviwala at JS Global Capital said.
Total traded volume stood at 188 million shares where SNGP (down 7.1 percent), WTL (down 3.1 percent), OGDC (down 4.9 percent), SSGC (down 7.4 percent) and PPL (down 4.0 percent) accounted for 35 percent of the aggregate.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023