The benchmark KSE-100 Index closed at 45,072.38 points
KARACHI
The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) turned bearish in a volatile session on Tuesday, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index shedding 257.67 points (-0.57 percent) to close at 45,072.38 points.
The market opened on a positive note and gained around 427 points during the first three hours of the session; however, a selling spree gripped the market later amid news of global markets going down due to the new coronavirus variant. Moreover, the transition from the Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) Emerging Markets to the Frontier Markets completed that kept the foreign buyers at bay.
The KSE-100 Index moved in a range of 1,029.64 points, showing an intraday high of 45,757.60 points and a low of 44,727.96 points.
Among other indices, the KSE All Share Index shed 152.15 points (-0.49 percent) to close at 30,831.91 points, while KMI All Share Islamic Index gained 21.37 points (+0.1 percent) to close at 22,069.57 points.
A total of 358 companies traded shares in the stock exchange, out of them shares of 129 closed up, shares of 207 closed down while shares of 22 companies remained unchanged. Out of 95 traded companies in the KSE-100 Index, 32 closed up, 61 closed down and two remained unchanged.
The overall market volumes increased by 143.23 million to 411.47 million shares. Total volumes traded for the KSE-100 Index increased by 157.28 million shares to 266.88 million shares. The number of total trades increased by 30,922 to 155,700, while the value traded increased by Rs23.92 billion to Rs34.82 billion. However, overall market capitalisation decreased by Rs38.10 billion.
Among scrips, HBL topped the volumes with 31.48 million shares, followed by FNEL (22.33 million) and UBL (20.84 million). Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include HBL, FNEL, UBL, TRG, and MCB, which formed around 28 percent of total volumes.
The major sectors taking the index toward south were commercial banks with 160 points, fertilizer with 78 points, food & personal care products with 20 points, investment banks / investment companies / securities companies with 18 points and textile composite with 13 points. The most points taken off the index was by MCB which stripped the index of 45 points followed by ENGRO with 39 points, POL with 37 points, LUCK with 35 points and TRG with 34 points.
The major sectors taking the index towards north were technology & communication with 27 points, power generation & distribution with 18 points, oil & gas marketing companies with 17 points, paper & board with 12 points and cement with 5 points. The most points added to the index were by SYS which contributed 64 points followed by OGDC with 39 points, PPL with 16 points, PSO with 16 points and FATIMA with 14 points.
According to experts, the market may attract investment as rebalancing the PSX to the status of frontier market has been completed. They were of the view that foreign buying will come into the market from Wednesday (today), as foreign buying has been at standstill for the last two days.
They said that falling oil prices will also support the country not only in terms of balance of payment but also in terms of reduced cost of production. They were of the view that Advisor to the PM on Finance Shaukat Tarin has sought a plan from the Petroleum Division to stabilise share prices of energy companies and this news supported the government-owned oil and gas exploration companies, including OGDC and PPL, during the last two sessions.
They added that if the government approves some plan to increase the dividend payout ratio of these companies, their share prices will bounce back massively.
