PSX turns bearish

KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Friday witnessed a bearish trend due to selling on investor concerns over political unrest in the country.

The market opened on positive note, however failed to continue this trend due to selling pressure and closed in deep red with low volumes.

The benchmark KSE-100 Index declined by 243.42 points or 0.57 percent and closed at 42,150.10 points. The index hit 42,470.71 points intraday high and 41,946.49 points intraday low.

Trading activity also remained low as daily volumes on the ready counter decreased to 143.209 million shares as compared to 161.778 million shares traded Thursday. The daily traded value on the ready counter increased to Rs 5.094 billion against previous session’s Rs 4.687 billion.

BRIndex100 decreased by 30.75 points or 0.72 percent to close at 4,225.30 points with total daily turnover of 101.872 million shares.

BRIndex30 plunged by 208.6 points or 1.33 percent to close at 15,517.91 points with total daily trading volumes of 65.101 million shares.

Foreign investors however remained net buyers of shares worth $1.820 million. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 39 billion to Rs 6.727 trillion. Out of total 327 active scrips, 220 closed in negative and only 85 in positive while the value of 22 stocks remained unchanged.

Dewan Motors was the volume leader with 12.273 million shares and gained Rs 0.31 to close at Rs 14.29 followed by TRG Pak that declined by Rs 4.16 to close at Rs 136.71 with 10.687 million shares. WorldCall Telecom closed at previous day’s closing level of Rs 1.41 without any change with 10.447 million shares.

Allawasaya Textile and Bhanero Textile were the top gainers increasing by Rs 225.33 and Rs 66.75 respectively to close at Rs 3229.81 and Rs 956.76 while Rafhan Maize and Sapphire Fiber were the top losers declining by Rs 488.25 and Rs 83.22 respectively to close at Rs 9677.50 and Rs 1050.11.

Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corporation said that stocks closed under pressure on investor concerns for weak economic outlook.

He said dismal data on exports for November 2022, high CPI inflation at 23.8 percent for November 2022, falling FX reserves, likely tough IMF conditions to release next tranche pending 9th review played a catalyst role in bearish close.

BR Automobile Assembler Index decreased by 56.44 points or 0.65 percent to close at 8,584.56 points with total turnover of 12.922 million shares.

BR Cement Index plunged by 89.61 points or 2.11 percent to close at 4,160.41 points with 8.597 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index lost 17.36 points or 0.21 percent to close at 8,432.75 points with 7.980 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index gained 10.42 points or 0.15 percent to close at 6,846.30 points with 8.384 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index fell by 20.52 points or 0.53 percent to close at 3,849.49 points with 14.479 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index declined by 90.04 points or 1.86 percent to close at 4,746.39 points with 30.012 million shares.

An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that a negative session was witnessed at PSX. The benchmark KSE-100 Index started off in green, but the continuous political unrest kept investors away, causing the index to hit an intraday low of 447.04 points.

Bears took charge of the bulls during the first session and kept on driving the market during the day as investors opted to square up their positions owing to the uncertain weekend ahead due to ongoing political noise. Volumes in the main-board remained decent whereas healthy volumes were observed in the 3rd tier stocks today as well.

Sectors contributing to the performance include Technology and Communication (down 71.6 points), Cement (down 68.2 points), Oil and Gas Marketing Companies (down 19.1 points), Pharmaceuticals (down 19.0 points) and Food & Personal Care Products (down 18.6 points).

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022