Market watch: Led by institutional investors, selling pressure takes index down

Benchmark KSE-100 index decreases 286.32 points

KARACHI: After two days of posting almost flat gains, the index succumbed to selling pressure and ended lower for the first time in nine trading sessions.

The positive start on Thursday was short-lived and, dictated by selling by institutional investors, the wider market ended significantly lower to fall below the coveted 40,000-point barrier.

At close, the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) benchmark KSE-100 Index ended 286.32 points, or 0.71%, lower to finish at 39,771.20 points.

Elixir Securities analyst Faisal Bilwani said the index snapped its eight-day winning streak on profit taking led by institutional investors.

“Stocks opened marginally positive, however, gains could not hold for long as limited interest and cautious trading did not help much in absorbing selling in index names, primarily in banks,” said Bilwani.

“MCB Bank (MCB -0.9%), United Bank (UBL -2.9%) and Habib Bank (HBL -1.8%) all closed lower despite the latter announcing half yearly earnings and payout in line with consensus.

“Engro Corp (Engro,-1.8%) was third on the list of stocks denting KSE100 most as higher than expected cash payout failed to take attention away from disappointing 1H profits.

“There was no respite for Hub Power (-1%) that is down near 6.5% month-to-date, as investors track reported foreign selling. However, they are likely to take advantage of this weakness ahead of 4Q earnings that are due next week.”



JS Global analyst Nabeel Haroon said the index rallied during the early hours but selling forced the index to close lower.

“HBL (-1.78%) failed to garner investor interest despite posting better-than-expected 1H2016 results,” said Haroon.

“Oil and Gas Development Corporation (+0.46%) and Pakistan Petroleum Limited (+0.50%) in the exploration and production sector gained to close in the green zone, as crude oil prices surged to trade around $47/bbl level.”

Trade volumes remained at 239 million shares compared with Wednesday’s tally of 239 million shares.

Shares of 400 companies were traded on Thursday. At the end of the day, 99 stocks closed higher, 279 declined while 25 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs13.7 billion.



TRG Pakistan Limited was the volume leader with 30.4 million shares, gaining Rs1.24 to finish at Rs36.45. It was followed by K-Electric Limited with 20.1 million shares, gaining Rs0.05 to close at Rs8.67 and Pace (Pakistan) with 12.3 million shares, gaining Rs0.07 to close at Rs6.79.

Foreign institutional investors were net buyers of Rs313 million during the trade session, according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limite.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 19^th, 2016.

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