KARACHI: After a weeklong Eid holidays, Pakistan Stock Exchange Friday witnessed a bearish trend due to selling pressure on investor concerns over the PKR instability, rumors of policy rate hike in the upcoming monetary policy and political unrest in the country.
The market remained in negative zone throughout the session and closed in deep red with heavy losses as the investors remained on the sidelines in the absence of any positive trigger.
The benchmark KSE-100 Index plunged by 408.60 points or 0.90 percent and closed below 45,000 psychological level at 44,840.81 points. During the session, the KSE-100 Index hit 45,249.41 points intraday high and 44,784.42 points intraday low level.
Trading activity also remained low as total daily volumes on the ready counter decreased to 189.484 million shares as compared to 325.466 million shares traded on previous session while total daily traded value declined to Rs 5.661 billion against previous session’s Rs 9.290 billion.
BRIndex100 decreased by 53.62 points or 1.18 percent to close at 4,497.77 points with total daily turnover of 152.809 million shares.
BRIndex30 declined by 240.86 points or 1.47 percent to close at 16,095.36 points with total daily trading volumes of 100.454 million shares.
Foreign investors also remained net sellers of shares with net outflow of $1.158 million. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 76 billion to Rs 7.443 trillion. Out of total 333 active scrips, 219 closed in negative and only 90 in positive while the value of 24 stocks remained unchanged.
Summit Bank was the volume leader with 25.745 million shares and gained Rs 0.23 to close at Rs 2.72 followed by Unity Foods that closed at Rs 24.31, up Rs 0.69 with 18.231 million shares. Cnergyico PK lost Rs 0.24 to close at Rs 6.11 with 9.126 million shares.
Siemens Pak and Millat Tractors were the top gainers increasing by Rs 34.99 and Rs 30.78 respectively to close at Rs 624.99 and Rs 955.71 while Colgate Palmolive and Nestle Pakistan were the top losers declining by Rs 77.40 and Rs 75.00, respectively to close at Rs 2055.10 and Rs 5800.00.
An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the market opened in the red zone after week long Eid holidays. Investor remained sideline due to rupee parity against US Dollar and rumors of policy rate hike in the upcoming monetary policy. Volumes remained dull throughout the day as profit selling was witnessed across the board, on the contrary hefty volumes were observed in 3rd tier stocks.
Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (down 85.5 points), Cement (down 81.5 points), Technology (down 71.4 points) and E&P (down 49.1 points).
BR Automobile Assembler Index increased by 114.88 points or 1.19 percent to close at 9,746.03 points with total turnover of 495,563 shares.
BR Cement Index plunged by 108.12 points or 2.17 percent to close at 4,879.37 points with 12.369 million shares.
BR Commercial Banks Index decreased by 78.22 points or 0.78 percent to close at 10,005.64 points with 40.222 million shares.
BR Power Generation and Distribution Index declined by 58.45 points or 1.05 percent to close at 5,524.59 points with 6.126 million shares.
BR Oil and Gas Index lost 32.52 points or 0.85 percent to close at 3,774.81 points with 6.552 million shares.
BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 3,557.50 points, down 86.95 points or 2.39 percent with 26.102 million shares. Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corporation said that stocks closed sharply lower on global equity selloff and the rupee instability.
He said speculations ahead of the SBP policy announcement later this month amid surging inflation and uncertainty over approval of $7.4 billion Saudi aid package sought by the government played a catalyst role in bearish close.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022