KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) turned bearish on Wednesday amid political turmoil in the country, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index shedding 101.14 points (-0.23 percent) to close at 44,337.56 points. The PSX opened on a negative note and neared the day’s low at the opening; however, the market eroded its all loss of the day and touched the day’s high during the next two hours. Later, the index turned bearish again and hit the day’s low within the next two-and-a-half hours. However, the last hour trading lessened the day’s loss to a great extent as the index gained over 350 points during this period. Though the political situation in the country favoured a bearish trend, the global rally in stocks kept the index’s loss in check. Asia shares joined a global rally as hopes rose for a negotiated end to the Ukraine conflict, while bond markets signalled concern overnight that aggressive rate hikes could damage the US economy after 10-year yields briefly dipped below two-year rates. TLTP
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 1 percent, and touched its highest level since March 4, with most Asian stock markets remaining in positive territory.
On the other hand, the Pakistani rupee plunged to a new low of 182.64 against the US dollar, while the crude oil prices surged over 3 percent during the day. Both these developments eroded the investors’ confidence.
The KSE-100 Index moved in a range of 469.31 points, showing an intraday low of 43,975.67 points and a high of 44,444.98. Among other indices, the KSE All Share Index shed 7.39 points (-0.02 percent) to close at 30,372.08 points, while KMI All Share Islamic Index shed 52.34 points (-0.24 percent) to close at 21,983.13 points.
A total of 363 companies traded shares in the stock exchange, out of them shares of 159 closed up, shares of 172 closed down while shares of 32 companies remained unchanged. Out of 96 traded companies in the KSE-100 Index, 38 closed up and 52 closed down and six remained unchanged.
The overall market volumes increased by 75.22 million to 344.13 million shares. Total volumes traded for the KSE-100 Index remained 115.69 million shares. The number of total trades increased by 9,429 to 121,417, while the value traded increased by Rs0.63 billion to Rs7.78 billion. Overall, market capitalisation decreased by Rs1.82 billion.
Among scrips, KEL topped the volumes with 38.42 million shares, followed by GGL (31.12 million) and WTL (19.94 million). Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes included KEL, GGL, WTL, PAELR3 and TREET, which formed around 36 percent of total volumes.
In terms of rupee, RMPL remained the top gainer and witnessed an increase of Rs500 (+4.35 percent) per share, closing at Rs12,000. The runner-up was NESTLE, the share price of which climbed up by Rs90 (+1.66 percent) to Rs5,500. OTSU remained the top loser in terms of rupee and witnessed a decrease of Rs19.12 (-7.5 percent) per share, closing at Rs235.88, followed by PKGS, the share price of which declined by Rs14.58 (-3.29 percent) to close at Rs428.27 per share.
The sectors taking the index towards south were oil & gas exploration companies (47 points), fertilizer (24 points), oil & gas marketing companies (16 points), commercial banks (13 points) and investment banks/ investment companies/ securities companies (11 points). The most points taken off the index were by OGDC (25 points), FFC (17 points), PSO (15 points), and MCB and TRG (15 points each).
The sectors taking the index towards north were engineering and power generation & distribution (12 points each), textile composite (9 points), real estate investment trust (4 points) and pharmaceuticals (3 points). The most points added to the index were by ENGRO (10 points), BAHL (9 points), SYS (8 points), ISL and DGKC (7 points each).
