Stock market edges down

KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange on Tuesday remained under pressure due to selling in various sectors and closed in red zone.

The benchmark KSE-100 Index declined by 352.25 points or 0.88 percent and closed below 40,000 psychological level at 39,802.91 points. The index hit 40,315.22 points intraday high and 39,705.42 points intraday low.

Trading activity slightly improved as daily volumes on ready counter increased to 153.741 million shares as compared to 146.880 million shares traded Monday. The daily traded value on ready counter increased to Rs 5.537 billion against Monday’s Rs 5.134 billion.

BRIndex100 decreased by 38.85 points or 0.98 percent to close at 3,929.60 points with total daily turnover of 135.053 million shares.

BRIndex30 plunged by 235.27 points or 1.66 percent to close at 13,926.08 points with total daily trading volumes of 68.024 million shares.

Foreign investors also remained net sellers of shares worth $1.970 million. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 33 billion to Rs 6.376 trillion. Out of total 322 active scrips, 212 closed in negative and only 98 in positive while the value of 12 stocks remained unchanged.

Bank Al-Falah was the volume leader with 16.339 million shares however lost Rs 0.04 to close at Rs 29.96 followed by PPL that inched down by Rs 0.67 to close at Rs 61.11 with 12.467 million shares. BoP closed at Rs 4.63, down Rs 0.30 with 7.700 million shares.

Rafhan Maize and Nestle Pakistan were the top gainers increasing by Rs 559.85 and Rs 347.88 respectively to close at Rs 8024.52 and Rs 5577.75 while Pak Services and Colgate Palmolive were the top losers declining by Rs 119.90 and Rs 79.83 respectively to close at Rs 1479.10 and Rs 1890.17.

An analyst at Topline Securities said that Pakistan equities closed negative where benchmark KSE-100 Index settled at 39,802 level, down 0.88 percent.

Lack of confidence over Pakistan economy and delayed IMF program led the market to witnessed profit-taking where market made an intraday low of minus 449 points. Major negative contributors in the trading session were EFERT, UBL, OGDC, ENGRO and SYS cumulatively dented the Index by 151 points.

BR Automobile Assembler Index gained 16.18 points or 0.22 percent to close at 7,493.06 points with total turnover of 3.759 million shares.

BR Cement Index lost 13.42 points or 0.35 percent to close at 3,803.69 points with 10.041 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index declined by 67.26 points or 0.84 percent to close at 7,904.10 points with 31.851 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index fell by 40.89 points or 0.64 percent to close at 6,301.40 points with 6.862 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index inched down by 19.71 points or 0.52 percent to close at 3,777.01 points with 22.165 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 4,287.46 points, down 22.21 points or 0.52 percent with 33.121 million shares.

Muhammad Shuja Qureshi at JS Global Capital said that the index failed to sustain Monday’s gains and lost 352 points to close at 39,803.

The market remained in red for most part of the day as key sectors like cement, steel and refinery failed to generate volumes. Buy-back activity in BAFL generated turnover of 16 million in the stock whereas 100 index turnover clocked in at 102 million shares.

Other volume leaders were PPL (down 1.1 percent), BOP (down 6.1 percent), WTL (down 4.1 percent) and TRG (up 0.1 percent).

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022