KARACHI
Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) snapped a four-day winning streak on Thursday amid concerns over the IMF loan revival deal as well as upcoming budget for the fiscal year 2023-24, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index shedding 456.25 points (-1.08 percent) to close at 41,686.46 points.
The market opened on a sharp positive note and gained around 165 points during the first half an hour trading. However, the concerns about the revival of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan programme as well as additional taxes likely to be imposed on listed companies, including banks, in the new budget turned the market towards profit-taking. There are also apprehensions that the government could give a populist budget in its bid to woo voters in the next general election, which, if happened, could dent the IMF programme.
The KSE-100 Index moved in a range of 658.28 points, showing an intraday high of 42,307.11 points and a low of 41,648.83 points. Among other indices, the KSE All Share Index shed 148.21 points (-0.53 percent) to close at 28,124.44 points, while KMI All Share Islamic Index shed 25.49 points (-0.12 percent) to close at 20,571.46 points.
The overall market volumes decreased by 128.75 million to 203.79 million shares against 332.54 million shares a session earlier. Total volumes traded for the KSE-100 Index remained 101.05 million against 117.41 million a session earlier, showing a decrease of 16.36 million shares.
Among scrips, UNITY topped the volumes with 28.72 million shares, followed by WTL (17.62 million) and TPLP (15.79 million). Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes included UNITY, WTL, TPLP, PRL, and PIAA, which formed around 40 percent of total volumes.
A total of 320 companies traded shares in the stock exchange as compared to 343 a session earlier. Out of traded companies, shares of 96 closed up, shares of 203 closed down while shares of 21 companies remained unchanged.
A total of 96 companies traded shares in the KSE-100 Index against 93 companies a session earlier, out of which shares of 18 companies closed up, 75 closed down and three remained unchanged.
The number of total trades decreased by 20,700 to 105,790 against 126,490 a session earlier, while the value traded decreased by Rs1.4 billion to Rs5.77 billion.
In terms of rupee, RPML remained the top gainer and witnessed an increase of Rs218 (2.62 percent) per share, closing at Rs8,550. The runner-up remained UPFL, the share price of which climbed up by Rs199 (+0.87 percent) to Rs23,199. AWTX remained the top loser in terms of rupee and witnessed a decrease of Rs241.81 (-7.49 percent) per share, closing at Rs2,988, followed by PSEL, the share price of which fell by Rs50 (-5.56 percent) to close at Rs850 per share.
The sectors taking the index towards south were commercial banks (132 points), technology & communication (87 points), oil & gas exploration companies (81 points), cement (49 points), and oil & gas marketing companies (34 points). The companies which deprived the index of most of the points included POL (60 points), TRG (42 points), SYS (38 points), MCB (35 points), and PSEL (27 points).
The sectors taking the index towards north were chemical (30 points), food & personal care products (18 points), synthetic & rayon (7 points), textile composite (6 points), and textile spinning (2 points). The major companies adding points to the index remained COLG (43 points), UNITY (9 points), IBFL (7 points), NESTLE (6 points), and ILP (5 points).
