Inflation hike dents investor interest at PSX

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Stocks extend losses for fifth day; KSE-100 sheds 186.15 points
The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed another bearish session, fifth in a row, on Monday and the benchmark KSE-100 Index lost 186.15 points (-0.42 percent) to close at 44,076 points.
The KSE-100 Index traded in a range of 696 points, showing an intraday high of 44,326 and a low of 43,630 points. The selling pressure was primarily because of roll-over trades from April future contracts.
Among other indices, the KSE All Share Index shed 82.34 points (-0.27 percent) to close at 29,935.64 points, while All Share Islamic Index shed 81.53 points (-0.38 percent) to close at 21,495.23 points.
A total of 360 companies traded shares in the stock exchange, out of them shares of 111 closed up, shares of 238 closed down while shares of 11 companies remained unchanged.
The overall market volumes decreased by 55.31 million to 238.44 million shares, while market capitalisation decreased by Rs21.17 billion. The number of total trades decreased by 10,808 to 86,831, and value traded decreased by Rs2.45 billion to Rs11.32 billion.
Among scrips, UNITY led the table with 36.2 million shares, followed by TELE (25.2 million) and GGL (23 million). Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include UNITY, TELE, GGL, TRG and WTL, which formed 46 percent of total volumes.
Foreign institutional investors were net buyers of Rs8.4 million worth of shares during the trading session, according to data compiled by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan.
Sector wise, the index was let down by technology & communication with 89 points, textile composite with 58 points, cement with 33 points, power generation & distribution with 29 points and refinery with 12 points. The most points taken off the index was by TRG which stripped the index of 130 points followed by HUBC with 28 points, NML with 23 points, ANL with 16 points and LUCK with 15 points.
The sectors propping up the index were food & personal care products with 25 points, commercial banks with 25 points, fertilizer with 18 points, tobacco with 12 points and paper & board with one point. The most points added to the index was by SYS which contributed 41 points followed by HBL with 17 points, UNITY with 16 points, KTML with 13 points and FFC with 13 points.
Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that roll-over trades from the April Futures Contract that remained outstanding at the end of Roll-over week on Friday caused mayhem on Monday as well, especially the positions in TRG and NETSOL. Resultantly, the KSE-100 Index slashed 632 points during the session. Recovery ensued, considering that the positions have rolled-over; however, since the positions were still outstanding, the recovery efforts proved futile, ending the session -186 points.
NETSOL hit lower circuit since the beginning of the session, whereas TRG traded near lower circuit the entire session. Besides technology stocks, selling pressure was observed in cement and steel sectors which kept the index down.
Aba Ali Habib Securities in its closing note said that volumes remained lower as severe lockdown measures including the closure of commercial activities in the upcoming week spiked investors’ anxieties. In addition, National Consumer Inflation for April 2021 was registered at 11.1 percent YoY while trade deficit widened by 20.1 percent to $23.56 billion during 10MFY21, which further dented investors’ sentiments.
As a result, proposal of new capital market incentives and surpassing of FBR’s revenue collection target to Rs384bn, failed to influence the bourse in bullish territory, the note added.