Market watch: Stocks slide after PTCL profits fall short of expectation

Telecom services provider witnesses drop in quarterly earnings.


Our Correspondent April 15, 2013
KSE 100 index plunged 1.01% or 189.78 points to end at the 18,524.50 points level. PHOTO: FILE

KARACHI: Pakistani stocks took a beating on the first trading session of the week, after the nation’s largest telecommunications company announced profits lower than market expectations.

Samar Iqbal, who is senior manager of equity sales at Topline Securities, said the bourse witnessed across the board selling pressure amid a fall in global equity markets and commodity prices. Major stocks that saw their share prices erode during traded included market heavyweight Engro Corp and Pakistan Telecommunications Company (PTCL).

The Karachi Stock Exchange’s (KSE) benchmark 100-share index plunged 1.01% or 189.78 points to end at the 18,524.50 points level. Trade volumes were higher at 153 million shares, compared with Friday’s tally of 118 million shares. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs5.13 billion.

“Engro Corp failed to carry its weeks-old momentum on rumours of its old plant facing technical problems,” reported Sibtain Mustafa, analyst at Elixir Securities. “It was rather a bad start of the week, after PTCL announced its earnings for the first quarter of calendar year 2013, down 10% quarter-on-quarter due to lower incoming minutes and higher administrative expenses.”

“Overall, financials continued to hold to their recent lows, after the central bank maintained its status quo over its monetary policy, citing depleting reserves amid International Monetary Fund loan repayments and fiscal constraints as key risks to the Pakistani economy,” he added.

Shares of 357 companies were traded on Monday. At the end of the day, 64 stocks closed higher, 250 declined while 43 remained unchanged.

“The sell off was triggered early in the session by PTCL, as its results failed to live up to consensus expectations,” said JS Global analyst Fahad Ali. “Investors preferred to sell off their positions and wait for further dips. Volumes too remained on the lower side,” he added.

TRG Pakistan was the volume leader with 19.66 million shares, losing Rs0.30 to finish at Rs8.01. It was followed by Maple Leaf Cement with 10.70 million shares, losing Rs0.94 to close at Rs17.58; and Pakistan Telecommunication Company with 10.24 million shares, losing Rs1.06 to close at Rs20.17.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs78.75 million, according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 16th, 2013.

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