KARACHI
Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed a choppy session on Thursday amid rupee’s depreciation, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index shedding 43.43 points (-0.10 percent) to close at 42,983.45 points.
The market opened on a negative note but soon switched towards the green territory. The market remained mostly in the green territory for more than the first four-and-a-half-hour trading. Later, bears made a comeback on the backdrop of the rupee’s depreciation, which fell to 200 against the US dollar in the interbank market. Pakistan’s talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Doha to revive the stalled multibillion-dollar loan programme gave some support to the market but the continuous depreciation of the rupee against the US dollar kept the gains in check.
Though the interest rate on commercial banks’ fresh financing to the government dropped 29 basis points a day earlier from historical high above 15 percent in the recent past, the reduction in cut-off yields failed to provide support to the market.
The KSE-100 Index moved in a range of 317.57 points, showing an intraday high of 43,256.32 and a low of 42,938.75 points. Among other indices, the KSE All Share Index shed 30.26 points (-0.1 percent) to close at 29,249.85 points, while KMI All Share Islamic Index shed 60.57 points (-0.29 percent) to close at 21,002.03 points.
A total of 352 companies traded shares in the stock exchange compared to 355 a session earlier. Out of traded companies, shares of 129 closed up, shares of 202 closed down while shares of 21 companies remained unchanged. A total of 93 companies traded shares in the KSE-100 Index, out of which 37 closed up, 52 closed down and four remained unchanged.
The overall market volumes decreased by 91.70 million to 187.10 million shares. Total volumes traded for the KSE-100 Index decreased by 35.81 million to 82.18 million shares. The number of total trades decreased by 31,355 to 83,292, while the value traded decreased by Rs1.83 billion to Rs5.08 billion. Overall market capitalisation decreased by Rs8.28 billion.
Among scrips, GGL topped the volumes with 15.1 million shares, followed by WTL (13.39 million) and SILK (13.1 million). Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes included GGL, WTL, SILK, TELE and CNERGY, which formed over 31 percent of total volumes.
In terms of rupee, SFL remained the top gainer and witnessed an increase of Rs70.99 (+7.46 percent) per share, closing at Rs1,023. The runner-up remained SAPT, the share price of which climbed up by Rs70.05 (+7.5 percent) to Rs1,004.52. RMPL remained the top loser in terms of rupee and witnessed a decrease of Rs89.07 (-0.88 percent) per share, closing at Rs10,000, followed by GATI, the share price of which fell by Rs33.65(-7.5 percent) to close at Rs415.1 per share.
The sectors taking the index towards south were oil & gas exploration companies (39 points), cement (17 points), commercial banks (15 points), investment banks/ investment companies/ securities companies (10 points) and technology & communication (8 points). The most points taken off the index were by HBL (14 points), PPL (13 points), MARI (12 points), and POL and LUCK (11 points each).
The sectors taking the index towards north were fertilizer (37 points), chemical (25 points), power generation & distribution (7 points), textile composite and automobile assembler (4 points each). The most points added to the index were by EPCL (26 points), ENGRO (15 points), EFERT and FFC (13 points each), and HUBC (9 points).
