Market watch: Bears cast shadow as index goes below 31,000

Benchmark KSE-100 index falls 326.60 points

KARACHI: A day after equities broke their bearish spell, negativity returned to the bourse as the oil and gas sector reacted to dipping crude prices, while investors remained spooked by continuous foreign selling which has amounted to a net outflow of $36 million year-to-date.

At close on Wednesday, the Pakistan Stock Exchange’s (PSX) KSE-100 index fell 1.05% or 326.60 points to end at 30,766.01.



According to JS Global analyst Ahmad Saeed Khan, the oil sector corrected amid declining international crude prices as Pakistan Oilfields (POL -2.05%) came off sharply.

“Maple Leaf Cement (MLCF +0.77%) rallied on the back of better than expected second quarter results as earnings per share (EPS) for 2QFY16 clocked in at Rs2.84 versus street consensus of Rs2.0.

“Moving forward, we expect the market to follow the trend of global markets and remain sensitive to the direction of foreign portfolio flows,” said Khan.

Meanwhile, Topline Securities, in its report, said that after Tuesday’s respite, local bourse resumed its falling trend as foreign selling, especially in oil and fertiliser sectors, weighed in.

“Better-than-expected 2QFY16 earnings of MLCF resulted in the stock increasing 0.8% on Wednesday.

“Traded volume was above average in Sui Northern Gas Pipelines (SNGP) due to its result announcement a day earlier. The stock increased 0.9%,” said the report.

“POL, Pakistan Petroleum (PPL) and Oil and Gas Development Company (OGDC) declined 0.3-2.1% as weakness in global oil prices continued,” it added.

Trade volumes fell to 106 million shares compared with Tuesday’s tally of 154 million shares.

Shares of 311 companies were traded on Wednesday. At the end of the day, 87 stocks closed higher, 208 declined while 16 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs7 billion.



Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited was the volume leader with 11 million shares, gaining 0.20 to finish at Rs21.42. It was followed by TRG Pakistan Limited with 8.9 million shares, losing Rs0.66 to close at Rs26.83 and Maple Leaf Cement with 8.2 million shares, gaining Rs0.63 to close at Rs82.23.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs686 million during the trade session, according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 21^st, 2016.

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