Market watch
Benchmark index falls 99.81 points to settle at 46,768.14
news agency
KARACHI
The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed profit taking on Wednesday and the benchmark KSE-100 Index shed almost 100 points (-0.21 percent) to close at 46,768.14 points.
The KSE-100 index opened on a positive note and remained in the green zone for most of the day on account of optimistic investors sentiments with regards to Pakistan reaching staff level agreement with IMF for the Extended Fund Facility of $6 billion. However, after reaching a high of 47,305.8 points, the index lost its momentum and touched an intra-day low of 46,726.21 points. It finally settled at 46,768.14 points.
Among other indices, the KSE All Share Index shed 93.15 points (-0.29 percent) to close at 32,048.68 points. However, the All Share Islamic Index gained 29.59 (+0.13 percent) to close at 23,274.38 points.
A total of 419 companies traded shares in the stock exchange, out of them shares of 204 closed up, shares of 199 closed down while shares of 16 companies remained unchanged. All share volume increased by 187.56 million shares to 701.76 million Shares, while market capitalisation decreased by Rs24.55 billion. Total trades increased by 42,200 to 204,907, while value traded increased Rs3.15 billion to Rs28.51 billion.
Among scrips, HUMNL realized trading volumes of 77.8 million shares, followed by TELE (76.1 million) and DSL (52.9 million). Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include HUMNL, TELE, DSL, MLCF and WTL, which formed 38 percent of total volumes.
Sector wise, the index was let down by commercial banks with 145 points, oil & gas exploration companies with 28 points, tobacco with 21 points, power generation & distribution with 20 points and engineering with 9 points. The most points taken off the index was by HBL which stripped the index of 131 points followed by OGDC with 23 points, PAKT with 19 points, DGKC with 18 points and HUBC with 16 points.
Sectors propping up the index were automobile assembler with 28 points, cement with 26 points, fertilizer with 24 points, technology & communication with 14 points and chemical with 11 points. The most points added to the index was by LUCK which contributed 56 points followed by MTL with 29 points, PSO with 24 points, TRG with 19 points and FFC with 17 points.
Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the market oscillated between +438 points and -141 points during the session. HBL’s announcement of financial results became a major dampener for investors who bought the share in anticipation of a hefty dividend.
However, after the announcement of results, HBL came down to its near term support of 130. PSO and ENGRO were also due to announce results today, but were deferred till tomorrow due to time, said the analysts.
