Market watch: Record low trading pulls KSE-100 back in red zone

Benchmark index loses 116.66 points, wiping out Wednesday’s marginal gains

KARACHI: The stock market’s marginal recovery a day ago proved to be short-lived as it resumed its slide on Thursday despite a slight recovery in the second half of the trading session.

Substantial foreign buying provided some respite to the market, exploration and production (E&P) sector sustaining losses.

The steel sector was a prominent exception in an otherwise unimpressive environment as attractive valuations of major steel stocks generated investors’ interest.

At close, the benchmark KSE 100-share Index recorded a decrease of 116.66 points or 0.28% at 41,206.99 points.

JS Global analyst Maaz Mulla said the market remained negative during initial hours of the day, with record low volumes, hitting an intra-day low of -481 points.

However, in the second half, the index recovered to close at 41,207 on the back of foreign buying under MSCI rebalancing.



Volumes in the All-Share Index stood at just 71 million. The dearth of volumes can be attributed to uncertainties on the political and economic fronts coupled with heavy rainfall.

For the fourth day in a row, Habib Bank Limited (HBL, -5%) opened at its lower lock, contributing -136 points to the benchmark index.

Mari Petroleum (-0.99%), however, recorded a comparatively small decline after closing at its lower lock for two consecutive days.

“E&P sector closed (5.2%) lower than Wednesday’s close, further exerting pressure on the index. As a result, Pakistan Petroleum (-1.38%), Oil and Gas Development Company (-2.34%) and Pakistan Oilfields (-0.11%) closed in the red zone.”

Amongst steel companies, Amreli Steels (+1.75%), International Steels (+1.25%) and Aisha Steel Mills (+4.97%) closed in the green zone as investors picked these stocks at attractive prices.

“Moving forward, we recommend investors to remain cautious and wait for clarity in the market,” he added.



Overall, trading volumes fell to 70 million shares compared with Wednesday's tally of 132 million.

Shares of 347 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 213 stocks closed higher, 120 declined while 14 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs5.4 billion.

TRG Pakistan was the volume leader with 7.63 million shares, gaining Rs1.51 to close at Rs35.38. It was followed by United Bank with 4 million shares, losing Rs3.53 to close at Rs186.13 and Azgard Nine with 3.73 million shares, gaining Rs0.49 to close at Rs13.83.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs673 million during the trading session, according to data compiled by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.