Bears in the driving seat

Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Tuesday witnessed a bearish trend as the investors opted to book profit on available margins and the benchmark KSE-100 index declined by 173.62 points to close at 48,865.79 points. The market opened on negative note and the index hit 48,683.06 points intra-day low level, however buying in some selective stocks supported the index to minimise its intra-day losses.
The foreign investors remained net sellers of shares and withdrew another $5.1 million from Pakistan stock market. Trading activities also remained low as the trading volumes on ready counter decreased to 413.981 million shares as compared to 492.310 million shares traded on Monday. Total market capitalisation decreased by Rs 18 billion to stand at Rs 9.785 trillion. Out of total 417 active scrips, 205 closed in negative and 199 in positive while value of 13 stocks remained unchanged.
Engro Fertilizer was the volume leader with 36.101 million shares however declined by Rs 3.66 to close at Rs 69.62 followed by Azgard Nine that gained Rs 0.47 to close at Rs 10.34 with 33.958 million shares. K-Electric inched up by Rs 0.03 to close at Rs 9.35 with 28.900 million shares. Hinopak Motor and National Refinery were the top gainers increasing by Rs 38.00 and Rs 30.28 respectively to close at Rs 1823.00 and Rs 635.90 while Wyeth Pak and Sanofi-Aventis were the top losers declining by Rs 198.00 and Rs 120.00 respectively to close at Rs 5000.00 and Rs 2710.00.
An analyst at Global Securities said that the local bourse started off on a negative note, losing over 350 points soon after the opening bell. The bearish spell largely emanated from the fertilizer sector as news reports revealed that the fertilizer subsidy announced during FY17''s federal budget was exhausted, a scenario which will likely cause fertilizer prices to rise in the future. Consequently, FFC, EFERT, FATIMA and FFBL declined by 2.81 percent, 4.99 percent, 4.98 percent and 3.23 percent respectively and cumulatively eroded 114 points from the index. The oil and gas exploration sector also came under pressure with the PPL, OGDC and POL eroding 35 points after international oil prices fell below $52/bbl. The details of the export policy were also announced during the session, causing majority of the textile companies to close in green. Other major gainers were MCB, SEARL and NRL with a cumulative contribution of 82 points.