PSX stays depressed

KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Wednesday remained under pressure and closed in red zone due to selling, mainly in banking and cement sector stocks.

The benchmark KSE-100 Index plunged by 467.89 points or 1.12 percent and closed at 41,297.73 points. The index hit 41,813.67 points intraday high and 41,119.46 points intraday low.

Trading activity remained very thin as total volumes on ready counter decreased to 142.192 million shares as compared to 257.163 million shares traded on Tuesday while total daily traded value declined to Rs 5.347 billion against previous day’s Rs 7.708 billion. BRIndex100 declined by 49.08 points or 1.19 percent to close at 4,081.75 points with total daily turnover of 123.396 million shares.

BRIndex30 decreased by 98.59 points or 0.65 percent to close at 15,101.92 points with total daily trading volumes of 74.838 million shares. Foreign investors also remained net sellers of shares worth $244,702.

The market capitalization declined by Rs 53 billion to Rs 6.922 trillion. Out of total 316 active scrips, 168 closed in negative and 124 in positive while the value of 24 stocks remained unchanged.

K-Electric was the volume leader with 14.377 million shares however lost Rs 0.04 to close at Rs 3.09 followed by WorldCall Telecom that closed at Rs 1.36, down Rs 0.03 with 11.615 million shares. Hascol Petroleum gained Rs 0.24 to close at Rs 4.25 with 7.563 million shares.

Sanofi-Aventis and Colgate Palmolive were the top gainers increasing by Rs 69.33 and Rs 47.99 respectively to close at Rs 993.83 and Rs 2,247.99 while Nestle Pakistan and Premium Textile were the top losers declining by Rs 190.00 and Rs 49.90 respectively to close at Rs 5,800.00 and Rs 690.10.

Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corporation said that stocks closed bearish on global equities selloff. Pressure remained in scrips across-the-board as investor weigh tough IMF conditions amid monetary targets, energy pricing ahead of release of $2 billion tranche next month.

He said speculations ahead of SBP policy announcement next week and dismal data on $1.4 billion current account deficit in May’22 played a catalytic role in bearish close.

BR Automobile Assembler Index lost 44.45 points or 0.44 percent to close at 9,965.52 points with total turnover of 1.088 million shares.

BR Cement Index decreased by 27.78 points or 0.68 percent to close at 4,079.30 points with 12.136 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index plunged by 246.99 points or 2.85 percent to close at 8,408.59 points with 17.209 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index fell by 38.13 points or 0.69 percent to close at 5,500.23 points with 19.686 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index inched down by 25.8 points or 0.68 percent to close at 3,746.57 points with 18.063 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index declined by 63.23 points or 1.88 percent to close at 3,292.29 points with 24.728 million shares.

An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the market remained under pressure due to major sell-off in the banking stocks. Cement sector stayed in the red zone due to increase in Afghan coal price and export tax. Value buying was witnessed in the E&P sector. In the last trading hour, profit-taking was witnessed across-the-board.

Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (down 271.6 points), E&P (down 58.6 points), Technology (down 56.8 points), Cement (down 23.3 points) and Power (down 17.6 points).

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022