Benchmark
KSE-100 index falls 373.09 points.
However, there was a sharp recovery after the day started off with a disastrous 1,200 point drop that was followed by investors scooping up whatever they could to benefit from the weakness.
At close on Monday, the Pakistan Stock Exchange’s (PSX) KSE-100 index fell 1.20% or 373.09 points to end at 30,628.40.
JS Global analyst Ovais Ahsan said there was a silver lining as a sharp intraday recovery towards the end saw the index recoup losses from a 4% decline to close down by 1.2%.
“The biggest laggards of the day were the banks as HBL (-2.5%) and MCB (-2.4%) led declines.
“Unfounded fear of investors that Iranian cement would flood the local market post lifting of sanctions hit the sector though buying on the dips helped the sector recover some of the intraday losses.
“K-Electric (+1%) gained on the back of news that it has acquired land for a green field coal fired projects as part of its expansion plans.
“Positive momentum generated toward the latter half of the day will set up the market for a bounce back rally though overall direction will remain sensitive to global markets.”
Meanwhile, Elixir Securities report stated that Monday’s red session meant equities closed the longest negative streak (11th negative session) dating back to the 2008 market crash.
“The day was full of excitement though as stocks witnessed wild swings with benchmark KSE-100 index dipping by as much as 3.9% on reported local selling mainly by capital protected funds and local retail investors.
“This was followed by a sharp and swift pullback that wiped nearly 3% of the losses for the day as reportedly local banks and foreign institutions jumped in to take advantage of the weakness.
“Oil marketing and cements led the bounce back with Hascol (+5%), Pakistan State Oil (+0.82%), Lucky Cement (+0.32%) gaining on value buying while Engro Corp (-0.98%) also covered most of the losses for the day on reported institutional and prop book buying.”
Trade volumes rose to 210 million shares compared with Friday’s tally of 138 million shares.
Shares of 342 companies were traded on Monday. At the end of the day, 98 stocks closed higher, 227 declined while 17 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs10.5 billion.
K-Electric was the volume leader with 15.9 million shares, gaining 0.07 to finish at Rs7.06. It was followed by TRG Pakistan with 14.1 million shares, losing Rs0.22 to close at Rs26.30 and DG Khan Cement with 10.6 million shares, losing Rs3.93 to close at Rs145.19.
Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs830 million during the trade session, according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 19th, 2016.
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