Market watch: Bourse loses momentum, ends lower for sixth straight session

KSE-100 Index falls 426.30 points to close the day below 48,000

KARACHI: The stock market opened positive on Thursday, but failed to sustain the momentum and fell over 550 points in the first hour of trading. Later, it staged a minor recovery, but still closed negative as investors awaited the verdict in the Panama Papers case.

At close, the Pakistan Stock Exchange’s benchmark KSE 100-share Index recorded a fall of 426.30 points or 0.88% to end at 47,949.33 - its sixth successive finish in the red.

According to Elixir Securities, Pakistan equities slipped below 48,000 points and closed lower for the sixth session in a row in the wake of institutional selling pressure.



“The market opened positive, but failed to stay in the green zone for long as sentiments were dented by sizeable selling on the part of foreign investors on Wednesday,” said analyst Ali Raza.

“As the day progressed, the KSE-100 Index nosedived and tested support near 47,800 levels on market chatter about further foreign selling, primarily in financial, cement and select index names.

“Major dent came from index-heavy Habib Bank (-1.7%), followed by Hub Power (-1.9%), Lucky Cement (-1.2%) and United Bank (-1%). Retail-favourite The Bank of Punjab (-6.2%) hit the lower price limit after its results and rights issue disappointed investors,” said Raza.



“[We] see volatile trading to continue in near term with anxiety over domestic politics and recent bout of foreign selling dampening the mood.”

However, excitement over regulatory changes to the leverage product and upcoming earnings season may help the market recover lost ground in coming days.

JS Global analyst Arhum Ghous said another bleak session was witnessed at the bourse as the benchmark index traded between an intra-day high of +129 points and intra-day low of -555 points, finally closing at 47,949, down 426 points.

“The Bank of Punjab closed negative as the bank announced its 2016 result. It posted EPS of Rs3.13 and announced 70% right shares at a premium of Rs2 per share,” said Ghous.



“Pakistan Oilfields (-1.32%) and Pakistan Petroleum (-0.50%) closed in the red in the exploration and production sector as crude prices reversed course and fell.”

Oil marketing companies closed in the red while Sui Northern Gas Pipelines (+0.13%) ended positive on the back of news that the government had begun splitting gas utilities to win loans from the Asian Development Bank and World Bank.

“Moving forward, we expect the market to remain volatile as pressure is likely to persist due to the rollover week and recommend investors to remain cautious,” he added.

Overall, trading volumes fell to 241 million shares compared with Wednesday’s tally of 272 million.



Shares of 386 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 84 stocks closed higher, 285 declined while 17 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs10.8 billion.

Azgard Nine was the volume leader with 34 million shares, gaining Rs0.89 to close at Rs13.10. It was followed by The Bank of Punjab with 25.6 million shares, losing Rs1 to close at Rs15.05 and Jahangir Siddiqui and Company with 19.8 million shares, gaining Rs1.20 to close at Rs27.01.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs102 million during the trading session, according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.