Selling pressure sets in

Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) Tuesday witnessed selling pressure due to investor concerns over the security situation after a terrorist attack in Lahore. The benchmark KSE-100 index declined by 197.72 points to close at 49,767.91 points.
Trading activity also remained low as daily trading volumes on the ready counter decreased to 353.066 million shares as compared to 362.407 million shares traded Monday. The market capitalization decreased by Rs 55 billion to Rs 9.822 trillion. Out of total 409 active scrips, 260 closed in negative, 133 in positive while value of 16 stocks remained unchanged. Foreign investors remained net buyers of shares worth $3.2 million.
Aisha Steel Mill was the volume leader with 40.870 million shares. It gained Rs 0.10 to close at Rs 27.31 followed by Power Cement that inched up by Rs 0.09 to close at Rs 19.94 with 37.173 million shares. K-Electric lost Rs 0.05 to close at Rs 10.09 with 23.576 million shares.
Rafhan Maize and Shell Pakistan were the top gainers with Rs 89.00 and Rs 29.38, respectively to close at Rs 7,595.00 and Rs 617.01. Wyeth Pak and Sanofi-Aventis were the top losers with Rs 206.65 and Rs 84.11, respectively to close at Rs 4,263.34 and Rs 2,651.89.
Nabeel Haroon at JS Global Capital said that the market opened on a weak note on the back of unfortunate terrorist incident in Lahore. During the latter hours selling pressure was witnessed in the market by sceptical investors as the index lost around 198 points to close at 49,768 points. Index heavyweight HBL (up 0.42 percent) closed in the green zone as the banking company declared its year end result for 2016. In its result company posted an EPS of Rs23.23/share along with a dividend announcement of Rs3.5/share taking the full year payout to Rs14/share. AGTL (down 2.1 percent) in the automobile sector lost value to close in red zone as the company declared its year end result for 2016. SHEL gained to close on its upper circuit for the second consecutive day on the back of the news that the OMC has signed a contract for the supply of lubricants, technical assistance and services to Fatima Group.
An analyst at Global Securities said that the market once again flirted with 50,000 before succumbing to selling pressure, losing 509 points from its peak and reaching the day's low of 49,528 points. The market found support at the 49,500 level and gained back around 300 points before finally settling at 49,768 points (down 198 points) by day's end. The banking sector remained under pressure likely due to institutional selling where even HBL result failed to excite investors. The steel sector managed to slow down its declining trend with over half the steel scrips closing in green after yesterday's thrashing caused by rumours of a stay order on the anti-dumping duty imposed on CRC. The day's top contributors were NML (up 2.32 percent), SHEL (up 5.00 percent) and SNGP (up 2.74 percent) with a cumulative contribution of 38 points while the day's laggards emerged as POL (down 1.87 percent), UBL (down 0.76 percent) and FFC (down 1.10 percent) with a cumulative erosion of 54 points.