Benchmark index dives 283.50 points to settle at 47,828.71
KARACHI
After accumulating over 1,150 points in the last three sessions, the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed profit-taking amid rollover week, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index shedding 283.5 points (-0.59 percent) to close at 47,828 points.
The market remained in the red zone almost throughout the session. The KSE-100 Index moved in a range of 375.4 points, showing an intraday high of 48,114.9 points and an intraday low of 47,739.5 points.
Among other indices, the KSE All Share Index shed 157.04 points (-0.48 percent) to close at 32,659.55 points, while All Share Islamic Index shed 142.97 points (-0.60 percent) to close at 23,547.35 points.
A total of 390 companies traded shares in the stock exchange, out of them shares of 150 closed up, shares of 226 closed down while shares of 14 companies remained unchanged. Of the 95 traded companies in the KSE-100 Index, 30 closed up, 62 closed down, while three remained unchanged.
The overall market volumes decreased by 2.74 million to 394.95 million shares. Total volume traded for the KSE-100 Index was 129.48 million shares. The number of total trades decreased by 16,618 to 132,709; and the value traded decreased by Rs1.18 billion to Rs13.68 billion. Likewise, the market capitalisation decreased by Rs40.19 billion.
Among scrips, WTL led the volumes with 43.6 million shares, followed by TELE (30.9 million) and GGL (25.5 million). Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include WTL, TELE, GGL, BOP and ANL, which formed 36 percent of total volumes.
Sector wise, the index was let down by cement with 64 points, fertilizer with 60 points, commercial banks with 60 points, oil & gas marketing companies with 52 points and oil & gas exploration companies with 36 points. The most points taken off the index were by ENGRO which stripped the index of 50 points followed by PSO with 41 points, MEBL with 33 points, PPL with 29 points and LUCK with 28 points.
The sectors propping up the index were miscellaneous with 37 points, power generation & distribution with 17 points, chemical with 12 points, transport with 5 points and automobile assembler with 3 points. The most points added to the index were by PSEL which contributed 37 points followed by HUBC with 22 points, MTL with 7 points, ARPL with 6 points and PIBTL with 5 points.
According to experts, investors preferred to remain sidelined despite several positive news on economic front including Pakistan received $2.75 billion from IMF under new SDR allocation, which took the country’s total foreign exchange reserves to above $27 billion for the first time, and Pakistan’s Business Confidence Index rose dramatically from -50 percent to 9 percent.
They said that the profit taking in the session was observed owing to geopolitical uncertainty over the Afghan issue as the Taliban warned that there would be consequences if the United States and its allies try to remain in Afghanistan beyond next week. Moreover, the dollar also continued its upward trajectory and traded above Rs165, a level last seen in September 2020, also kept investors’ sentiments in check.
