KARACHI
Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) remained bearish for the fourth straight session on Tuesday on account of political uncertainty and foreign selling, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index losing 931.98 points (-1.48 percent) to close at 61,841.74 points.
The market opened on a positive note and remained in the green for over one and a half hours. During this period, the benchmark index breached the 63,000 points level. However, the special court’s decision to impose a 10-year sentence on former prime minister Imran Khan and former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi eroded investor confidence and led to heightened selling pressure in the market. The benchmark index has shed 2,980.75 points during the last five sessions.
According to market experts, geopolitical concerns along with foreign selling restricted market performance, saying that the market is expected to remain volatile in the near term. They said that there was some disappointment due to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP)’s outlook regarding inflationary pressure in the monetary policy statement on Monday. A day earlier, the central bank kept the interest rate unchanged at 22pc and increased the inflation target in the range of 23 to 25pc for the current fiscal year.
CEO Next Capital Najam Ali said, “In last one week PSX has fallen by about 4.5% mainly due to net foreign selling of $30m which was absorbed by the local investors. It indicates there is no panic about investing conditions among local investors despite uncertainty of elections and recent inflation numbers. Foreigners appear to be more nervous about uncertainty. New earnings season has started and corporate earnings, despite tough economic conditions, are expected to be decent.”
The benchmark index traded in a range of 1,436.88 points, showing an intraday high of 63,074.50 points and an intraday low of 61,637.62 points. Among other indices, the KSE All Share Index shed 768.33 points (-1.33 percent) to close at 41,909.11 points. Similarly, the KMI All Share Islamic Index shed 677.36 points (-2.23 percent) to close at 30,338.27 points.
Total volumes traded for the KSE-100 Index increased by 71.52 million to 233.75 million shares against 162.23 million shares in the previous session. Similarly, the overall market volumes increased by 118.54 million shares to 436.12 million shares against 317.58 million shares traded a session earlier.
Among scrips, KEL topped the volumes with 52.9 million shares, followed by WTL (29.22 million) and HASCOL (24.69 million). Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes included KEL, WTL, HASCOL, PTC, and PRL, which formed over 34 percent of total volumes.
A total of 346 companies traded shares in the stock exchange against 347 in the previous session, out of which shares of 76 closed up, shares of 249 companies closed down while shares of 21 companies remained unchanged. A total of 96 companies traded shares in the KSE-100 Index against 94 companies in the previous session, out of which share prices of 17 companies closed up, 75 companies closed down and four remained unchanged.
The number of total trades increased to 178,186 from 143,251 a session earlier, while the value traded increased by Rs4.6 billion to Rs15.29 billion from Rs10.69 billion a session earlier.
In terms of rupee, RMPL remained the top gainer with an increase of Rs400 (+4.55 percent) per share, closing at Rs9,200. The runner-up remained BATA, the share price of which climbed up by Rs20 (+1.15 percent) to Rs1,760. UPFL remained the top loser with a decrease of Rs1,687.5 (-7.5 percent) per share, closing at Rs20,812.5, followed by COLG, the share price of which fell by Rs109.27 (-7.03 percent) to close at Rs1,444.33 per share.
The major sectors taking the index towards south remained commercial banks (152 points), fertilizer (137 points), oil & gas exploration companies (117 points), chemicals (89 points), oil & gas marketing companies (79 points), cement (78 points), technology and communication (68 points), refinery (39 points), pharmaceutical (30 points), and food and personal care products (28 points).
Ten major companies depriving the index of points remained MEBL (44 points), COLG (43 points), ENGRO (42 points), OGDC (37 points), MARI (28 points), TRG (26 points), UBL (24 points), PSO (20 points), and SNGP and FFC (14 points each).
The major sectors taking the index towards north were insurance and closed-end mutual funds (2 points each), and miscellaneous (one point).
Ten major companies adding points to the index remained MCB (19 points), HUBC (10 points), RMPL (6 points), SEPL (5 points), BAFL (4 points), PPL (3 points), and HABSM, SHSML, NML and HASCOL (2 points each).
