Benchmark
KSE-100 index ends at 36,048.76.
KARACHI: The stock market on Thursday ended its week-long winning streak with the momentum slowing down because of profit-taking in second half of the trading session.
At close, the benchmark KSE 100-share index recorded a fall of 0.60% or 217.47 points to end at 36,048.76.
Elixir Securities analyst Ali Raza said Pakistan equities snapped a seven-session run of price gains and closed negative after profit-selling kicked in.
“After a positive open led by gains in the index-heavy exploration and production sector on higher international crude prices, the wider market succumbed to selling pressure on thin volumes with reports of foreign offloading also doing the rounds,” said Raza.
“Ironically, the benchmark index that rose nearly 185 points in early trade to test this year’s new high of 36,451 fell just 21 points short of an all-time high record of 36,472 (for intraday trading) and tumbled to find support at 36K.”
Raza said all major sectors including financial, cement and fertiliser closed lower, however, the exploration and production sector somewhat supported the benchmark index as global crude maintained its upward trend.
“More than half of the points to the index decline were contributed by index-heavy Habib Bank (-3.1%) alone, followed by Lucky Cement (-2.4%) and MCB Bank (-1.7%).”
JS Global analyst Arhum Ghous said volatility prevailed in the market as the index moved between an intraday high of 36,451 points and intraday low of 36,012 to finally close at 36,049.
Sui Northern Gas Pipelines (-1.61%) lost ground on the back of news that three independent power producers (IPPs) had won cases against the gas utility in the London Court of International Arbitration under their respective gas supply agreements, said Ghous. “The amount of penalty that SNGPL has to pay to these three IPPs is around Rs800 million.”
Tariq Glass (-1.94%) lost value to close in the red zone on the back of news that the DG customs valuation Karachi had revised customs values on the import of float glass and other types of glass for the assessment of customs duty, he said.
“Marginal correction continued in the stocks expected to be part of the MSCI Emerging Market Index, as Lucky Cement (-2.42%), UBL (-1.70%) and MCB (-1.52%) lost value to close in the red zone.”
Trade volumes rose to 304 million shares compared with Wednesday’s tally of 300 million. Shares of 371 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 182 stocks closed higher, 167 declined while 22 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs10.3 billion.
Pace Pakistan Limited was the volume leader with 36.8 million shares, gaining Rs0.69 to finish at Rs7. It was followed by TRG Pakistan Limited with 21.1 million shares, gaining Rs0.58 to close at Rs37.59 and Lotte Chemical with 15.2 million shares, gaining Rs0.26 to close at Rs6.28.
Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs443 million during the trading session, according to data compiled by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 13th, 2016.
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