KARACHI: A bearish trend continued on Pakistan Stock Exchange Thursday due to heavy selling in almost all sectors following increase in 3 months T-Bills yields that went up by 75bps to 15.25 percent, raising concern of a possible hike in the policy rate.
The market opened on negative note and remained in red zone most part of the day with low trading activities as the investors remained on sideline and avoided to take fresh position. The benchmark KSE-100 Index plunged by 518.13 points or 1.21 percent and closed at 42,237.91 points. During the session, the KSE-100 index hit 42,823.07 points intra-day high and 42,132.95 points intra-day low level.
Trading activity remained very thin as total daily volumes on ready counter decreased to 157.004 million shares as compared to 194.398 million shares traded on Wednesday while total daily traded value on ready counter declined to Rs 5.286 billion against previous day’s Rs 5.349 billion.
BRIndex100 decreased by 64.68 points of 1.52 percent to close at 4,180.17 points with a turnover of 144.055 million shares.
BRIndex30 declined by 307.96 points or 2.0 percent to close at 15,113.67 points with total daily trading volumes of 94.603 million shares.
Foreign investors remained on the selling side and withdrew $1.807 million from the local equity market. The market capitalization declined by Rs 71 billion to Rs 7.042 trillion. Out of total 345 active scrips, 254 closed in negative and only 75 in positive while the value of 16 stocks remained unchanged.
Pak Refinery was the volume leader with 14.990 million shares and gained Rs 0.19 to close at Rs 17.95 followed by Unity Foods that lost Rs 0.44 to close at Rs 21.86 with 10.966 million shares. Cnergyico PK closed at Rs 5.40, down Rs 0.17 with 9.870 million shares.
Sapphire Textile and Sapphire Fiber were the top gainers increasing by Rs 70.00 and Rs 35.01 respectively to close at Rs 1120.00 and Rs 1135.00 while Bata Pak and Nestle Pakistan were the top losers declining by Rs 126.85 and Rs 105.00 respectively to close at Rs 1723.15 and Rs 5675.00.
An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the market continued selling momentum from the previous session as rise in 3 months T-Bills yields went up by 75bps to 15.25 percent which raised concerns over a possible hike in the policy rate. The KSE-100 index made an intraday low of 623 points as selling pressure was witnessed across the board. Volumes remained dull although 3rd tier stocks were in the limelight.
Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (down 105.8 points), Fertilizer (down 66.8 points), Cement (down 62.3 points), Technology (down 48.7 points) and Chemicals (down 45.8 points).
BR Automobile Assembler Index decreased by 92.25 points or 0.91 percent to close at 10,030.83 points with total turnover of 921,566 shares.
BR Cement Index plunged by 84.41 points or 2.01 percent to close at 4,121.08 points with 11.269 million shares.
BR Commercial Banks Index declined by 108.78 points or 1.15 percent to close at 9,343.34 points with 18.498 million shares.
BR Power Generation and Distribution Index lost 14.61 points or 0.28 percent to close at 5,269.10 points with 4.234 million shares.
BR Oil and Gas Index fell by 31.1 points or 0.85 percent to close at 3,646.53 points with 7.343 million shares.
BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 3,316.18 points, down 68.17 points or 2.01 percent with 21.980 million shares.
Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corporation said that stocks closed sharply lower amid thin trade on surging Treasury bond yields by 75bps near to 15.25 percent and slump in global equities.
He said surge in NSS rates and likely Nepra announcement on higher power prices to restore IMF programme played a catalyst role in bearish close.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
Comments
Comments are closed.