Market watch: With dull activity, KSE-100 closes in the red

Benchmark index falls 411.71 points to close at 46,465.66

KARACHI: The stock market on Monday extended the losses suffered in the previous session and continued to fall throughout the day.

The KSE 100-share Index recorded an intra-day drop of 500 points, recovered slightly later, but still closed the day in the red.

The benchmark KSE 100-share Index recorded a fall of 411.71 points or 0.88% to finish trading at 46,465.66.

Elixir Securities, in its report, stated Pakistan equities extended losses on Monday with the benchmark index closing below 46,500 points on relatively dull activity.

"Anxiety over foreigners' selling and domestic politics as PAT (Pakistan Awami Tehreek) Chairman Tahirul Qadri lands in Lahore on Tuesday and plans to hold a rally to demand justice for his supporters who died during police firing, resulted in lower volumes in the wider market," stated Elixir.

Only 240 million shares changed hands on the KSE All-share Index, down 30% from last week's average.



All major sectors including oil, financial and cement closed lower on limited institutional interest while much of the volumes were focused on mid- and small-cap names where retail favourites like The Bank of Punjab (-4.9%), K-Electric (+0.7%) and TRG (-4.8%) dominated the volumes chart.

"[We] see selective interest to prevail and increased volatility on Tuesday with participants tracking both institutional and news flow on domestic politics to gauge the market's direction," the report added.

JS Global analyst Maaz Mulla said the market witnessed selling pressure as the KSE-100 index lost 412 points to close at 46,466.

"The decline in stock prices is possibly a result of jitters felt from the political impact of the recently ousted PM's rally," said Mulla.

Engro Polymer and Chemicals (-2.08%) declared its financial results for 1H2017 and its earnings per share of Rs1.58 stood below investor expectations for the April-June quarter.

Major laggards were Lucky Cement (-1.96%), Hub Power Company (-1.58%) and International Steels (-4.81%) as they cumulatively wiped 87 points off the index. Sector-wise, commercial banks dragged down the market by 51 points and United Bank Limited (-1.16%), National Bank (-0.54%) and MCB Bank (-0.73%) were among major losers of the sector.

Owing to lower global oil prices, Oil and Gas Development Company (-1.10%), Pakistan Oilfields (-1.45%) and Pakistan Petroleum (-0.63%) from the exploration and production sector ended in the red zone while Pakistan State Oil (+0.84%) in the oil marketing sector gained on account of positive investor expectations about its financial results that would be announced on Tuesday morning.



"Moving forward, we recommend investors to stay cautious and reduce short-term positions on strength," the analyst added.

Overall, trading volumes fell to 241 million shares compared with Friday's tally of 346 million.

Shares of 394 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 100 stocks closed higher, 281 declined while 13 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs10.2 billion.

The Bank of Punjab was the volume leader with 17 million shares, losing Rs0.58 to close at Rs11.31. It was followed by K-Electric with 14.8 million shares, gaining Rs0.05 to close at Rs7.30 and Summit Bank with 14.8 million shares, losing Rs1 to close at Rs4.36.

Foreign institutional investors were net buyers of Rs89 million during the trading session, according to data compiled by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.