KARACHI: A bearish trend continued on Pakistan Stock Exchange Wednesday. Due to investor concerns over depreciating PKR against the USD and prevailing economic and political situation in the country, the market failed to break the jinx. The market opened in positive territory, however failed to continue this momentum due to selling pressure that forced the market to drop in negative zone.
The benchmark KSE-100 Index declined by 255.33 points or 0.62 percent and closed below 41,000 psychological level at 40,965.58 points. During the session, the index hit 41,358.97 points intra-day high and 40,871.53 points intra-day low level.
Trading activity however improved as total daily volumes on ready counter increased to 170.416 million shares as compared to 156.574 million shares traded on Tuesday while total daily traded value on ready counter declined by Rs 4.827 billion against previous day’s Rs 5.668 billion.
BRIndex100 lost 28.78 points or 0.7 percent to close at 4,087.72 points with total daily turnover of 159.142 million shares.
BRIndex30 plunged by 286.48 points or 1.87 percent to close at 15,015.52 points with total daily trading volumes of 132.286 million shares.
Foreign investors however remained net buyers of shares worth $753,307. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 45 billion to Rs 6.728 trillion. Out of total 319 active scrips, 195 closed in negative and 100 in positive while the value of 24 stocks remained unchanged.
K-Electric was the volume leader with 40.319 million shares however lost Rs 0.10 to close at Rs 2.90 followed by TPL Properties that closed at Rs 19.36, down Rs 0.54 with 11.928 million shares. TRG Pak inched down by Rs 0.57 to close at Rs 114.07 with 11.378 million shares.
Sapphire Fiber and Sapphire Textile were the top gainers increasing by Rs 80.69 and Rs 76.53 respectively to close at Rs 1,156.57 and Rs 1,097.03 while Rafhan Maize and Sitara Chemical were the top losers declining by Rs 100.00 and Rs 17.96 respectively to close at Rs 9,650.00 and Rs 244.33.
An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that continued pressure on the PKR softened sentiment to take the KSE-100 Index below 41,000. All eyes now on the FED tonight and the quantum of rate increase.
Sectors contributing to the performance include E&P (down 91.9 points), Cement (down 39.3 points), Technology (down 26.9 points), Banks (down 24.3 points) and OGMCs (down 22.2 points).
BR Automobile Assembler Index gained 6.82 points or 0.08 percent to close at 9,075.79 points with total turnover of 422,018 shares.
BR Cement Index decreased by 45.46 points or 1.03 percent to close at 4,370.51 points with 11.927 million shares.
BR Commercial Banks Index lost 26.27 points or 0.31 percent to close at 8,548.22 points with 9.309 million shares.
BR Power Generation and Distribution Index inched down by 6.74 points or 0.12 percent to close at 5,629.01 points with 43.655 million shares.
BR Oil and Gas Index declined by 67.9 points or 1.83 percent to close at 3,647.05 points with 14.905 million shares.
BR Tech. & Comm. Index fell by 34.61 points or 0.87 percent to close at 3,942.92 points with 25.367 million shares.
Waqar Iqbal at JS Global Capital said that the market opened on a positive note but investors chose to book profits on the higher side. The index touched a high of 41,357 but soon profit-taking dragged it down to the 40,872 level.
The market eventually closed in the red zone at 40,965, losing 255 points. Volumes stood at 170 million shares where KEL (down 3.3 percent), TPLP (down 2.7 percent), TRG (down 0.5 percent), CNERGY (down 2.6 percent) and WTL (down 1.7 percent) were the volume leaders.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022