market watch: Bears dominate in wake of political uncertainty
Benchmark KSE 100-share Index falls 233.26 points
KARACHI:
A growing uncertainty due to the on-going Panama Papers scandal hearing meant bears would dominate the stock market.
At close on Tuesday, the Pakistan Stock Exchange’s benchmark KSE-100 index recorded a fall of 0.55% or 233.26 points to finish at 42,292.67.
According to Topline Securities market review, a continued foreign fund outflow for the past few days and uncertainty on the political front due to the Panama hearing led investors to trim their positions.
“Pressure was seen in heavyweight stocks such as United Bank (UBL), Habib Bank (HBL) and Hub Power Company (HUBC), which contributed 83 points to the fall in index.
“Unconfirmed news of HUBC and Pakistan State Oil’s (PSO) removal from the Morgan Stanley Capital International Emerging Markets (MSCI EM) Index and addition to the MSCI Small Cap Index led the stocks to decline by 1.4% and 1.6% respectively.”
Meanwhile, JS Global analyst Nabeel Haroon said bears dominated the day as the index lost 233 points to close at 42,293.
“Indus Motor (-2.07%) in the automobile sector continued its downward trajectory on the back of monthly auto sales numbers, which indicated a 26% YoY decline in sales for October 2016. This decline was due to a one-off slowdown in production of Corolla due to a problem in its assembly line and the company’s decision to discontinue the current Hilux model.”
Sui Northern Gas Pipelines (-1.28%) extended its previous day’s loss, after government’s decision not to increase gas prices. It was exacerbated by the court’s stay order against the 10.5% unaccounted-for-gas loss currently being collected from textile mills that were receiving re-gasified LNG, instead of 4.5% UFG.
“Pakistan International Bulk Terminal (+1.39%) gained as the progress report for the terminal was disseminated by the stock exchange, in which the company announced that the project was in line with the set deadlines.
“Moving forward, we recommend investors to adopt a cautious approach in the market.”
Trading volumes fell to 366 million shares compared with Monday’s tally of 554 million.
Shares of 408 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 163 stocks closed higher, 224 declined while 21 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs11.8 billion.
The Bank of Punjab was the volume leader with 29.1 million shares, gaining Rs0.05 to finish at Rs19.86. It was followed by PIAC (A) with 24.8 million shares, losing Rs0.78 to close at Rs10.86 and Japan Power with 18.3 million shares, gaining Rs1 to close at Rs6.69.
Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs687 million during the trading session, according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 16th, 2016.
A growing uncertainty due to the on-going Panama Papers scandal hearing meant bears would dominate the stock market.
At close on Tuesday, the Pakistan Stock Exchange’s benchmark KSE-100 index recorded a fall of 0.55% or 233.26 points to finish at 42,292.67.
According to Topline Securities market review, a continued foreign fund outflow for the past few days and uncertainty on the political front due to the Panama hearing led investors to trim their positions.
“Pressure was seen in heavyweight stocks such as United Bank (UBL), Habib Bank (HBL) and Hub Power Company (HUBC), which contributed 83 points to the fall in index.
“Unconfirmed news of HUBC and Pakistan State Oil’s (PSO) removal from the Morgan Stanley Capital International Emerging Markets (MSCI EM) Index and addition to the MSCI Small Cap Index led the stocks to decline by 1.4% and 1.6% respectively.”
Meanwhile, JS Global analyst Nabeel Haroon said bears dominated the day as the index lost 233 points to close at 42,293.
“Indus Motor (-2.07%) in the automobile sector continued its downward trajectory on the back of monthly auto sales numbers, which indicated a 26% YoY decline in sales for October 2016. This decline was due to a one-off slowdown in production of Corolla due to a problem in its assembly line and the company’s decision to discontinue the current Hilux model.”
Sui Northern Gas Pipelines (-1.28%) extended its previous day’s loss, after government’s decision not to increase gas prices. It was exacerbated by the court’s stay order against the 10.5% unaccounted-for-gas loss currently being collected from textile mills that were receiving re-gasified LNG, instead of 4.5% UFG.
“Pakistan International Bulk Terminal (+1.39%) gained as the progress report for the terminal was disseminated by the stock exchange, in which the company announced that the project was in line with the set deadlines.
“Moving forward, we recommend investors to adopt a cautious approach in the market.”
Trading volumes fell to 366 million shares compared with Monday’s tally of 554 million.
Shares of 408 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 163 stocks closed higher, 224 declined while 21 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs11.8 billion.
The Bank of Punjab was the volume leader with 29.1 million shares, gaining Rs0.05 to finish at Rs19.86. It was followed by PIAC (A) with 24.8 million shares, losing Rs0.78 to close at Rs10.86 and Japan Power with 18.3 million shares, gaining Rs1 to close at Rs6.69.
Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs687 million during the trading session, according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 16th, 2016.