KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange on Tuesday remained under pressure due to an anticipated interest rate hike in the upcoming monetary policy and political instability.

The benchmark KSE-100 index declined by 273.76 points or 0.67 percent and closed at 40,510.37 points. During the session, the index hit 40,854.82 points intra-day high and 40,444.67 points intra-day low level.

Trading activities remained very low as total daily volumes on ready counter decreased to 126.319 million shares as compared to 158.084 million shares traded on Monday while total daily traded value on the ready counter declined to Rs 5.648 billion against previous session’s Rs 5.718 billion.

BRIndex100 fell by 41.95 points or 1.03 percent to close at 4,012.11 points with total daily turnover of 113.635 million shares.

BRIndex30 decreased by 247.55 points or 1.73 percent to close at 14,046.78 points with 77.829 million shares.

The foreign investors however remained net buyers of shares worth $368,492. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 44 billion to Rs 6.272 trillion. Out of total 334 active scrips, 234 closed in negative and only 82 in positive while the value of 18 stocks remained unchanged.

WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 18.527 million shares however lost Rs 0.04 to close at Rs 1.29 followed by OGDC that declined by Rs 3.31 to close at Rs 82.62 with 5.333 million shares. TPL Properties closed at Rs 14.93, down Rs 0.39 with 4.479 million shares.

Unilever Foods and Pak Services were the top gainers increasing by Rs 1542.50 and Rs 130.00 respectively to close at Rs 22500.00 and Rs 2095.00 while Rafhan Maize and Sapphire Textile were the top losers declining by Rs 288.00 and Rs 78.46 respectively to close at Rs 8700.00 and Rs 1006.00.

An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that a negative session was witnessed at PSX. The index opened with positive numbers but sentiments quickly shifted in support of bears as the market proceeded to trade in a red zone during most of the trading session. An anticipated rate hike in the upcoming monetary policy and political instability drove the KSE-100 index down to hit an intraday low of negative 347.77 points as investors’ chose to remain cautious while trading and kept on hunting for value stocks with high dividend yield, whereas decent volumes were observed across the board.

Sectors contributing to the performance include E&P (down 150.1 points), Technology & Communication (down 93.8 points), OMCs (down 42.1 points), Cement (down 26.5 points) and Chemical (down 11.9 points).

BR Automobile Assembler Index gained 45.12 points or 0.61 percent to close at 7,465.48 points with total turnover of 3.187 million shares.

BR Cement Index lost 26.99 points or 0.71 percent to close at 3,776.67 points with 10.983 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index inched up by 35.45 points or 0.44 percent to close at 8,121.08 points with 14.591 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index fell by 38.82 points or 0.57 percent to close at 6,826.65 points with 14.276 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index plunged by 115.29 points or 2.94 percent to close at 3,810.91 points with 15.737 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index declined by 97.48 points or 2.28 percent to close at 4,174.74 points with 27.832 million shares.

Mubashir Anis Naviwala at JS Global Capital said that bourse witnessed another lackluster session due to delay in securing the staff-level agreement with IMF and expectations of further monetary tightening. KSE-100 index closed at the 40,510 level, down 274 points.

Volumes stood at 126 million shares where WTL (down 3.0 percent), OGDC (down 3.9 percent), TPLP (down 2.5 percent), HUBC (down 0.3 percent) and TRG (down 1.7 percent) were the major volume contributors.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023

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