Market watch: KSE-100 turns red again amid thin volumes

Benchmark index loses 274.19 points to settle at 41,126.83

KARACHI: One session up, a few sessions down; this seems to be the general pattern that the stock market has been following for the past few weeks.

The bourse kicked off the week on a negative note on Monday, wiping off more than half of the gains made in the preceding session.

After a brief open in the green zone, stocks began a steady decline, plunging over 300 points in intra-day trading. The downward trajectory was led by a lack of positive triggers and serious buyers as most investors stood on the sidelines.

At close, the benchmark KSE 100-share Index recorded a decrease of 274.19 points or 0.66% to end at 41,126.83.

According to Elixir Securities, Pakistan equities closed lower with the benchmark KSE-100 index settling above 41,100 points, down 0.7%.

"The wider market showed a lacklustre participation with fewer than 100 million shares changing hands on the KSE All-share Index," stated Elixir.

Habib Bank (HBL, +5%) stood strong for the second consecutive session, trading at its upper price limit after lower-than-earlier-announced penalty of $225 million was imposed on its New York branch.



Meanwhile, United Bank Limited (UBL, -3.6%) contributed the most to the day's losses on reports of an aggressive foreign seller.

On the results front, Pakistan Oilfields (POL, -3.1%) closed lower after posting earnings and pay-out that were below consensus. Attock Cement (+0.4%) closed little changed after announcing earnings in line with street estimates.

"With chartists seeing strong support at 41,000, we expect the market to consolidate and engage in range bound trading with the KSE-100 index hovering in a range of 400-500 points in the near term," the report added.

JS Global analyst Maaz Mulla said another lacklustre session was witnessed as the market closed at 41,127, 274 points negative after hitting an intra-day high of +151 points.

"There wasn't much exchange in the market even though many value stocks announced their financial results including Attock Petroleum (-3.02%), National Refinery (-4.80%), POL (-3.12%) and Attock Refinery (+0.77%)," said Mulla.

The market opened positive as HBL (+5%) hit its upper circuit after news that it had paid off the penalty of $225 million through foreign loans.

Attock Petroleum, in its FY17 results, posted earnings per share of Rs63.89 and dividend per share of Rs27.5. This took full-year dividend to Rs42.50, lower than analysts' expectations.



Attock Refinery posted earnings per share of Rs63.47 and cash dividend of Rs6 per share, whereas National Refinery announced earnings per share of Rs100.61 and cash dividend of Rs22.5 per share.

POL registered earnings per share of Rs40.94 and declared cash dividend of Rs25 per share, taking full-year pay-out to Rs40.

"There appears no positive fundamental trigger in the market. We recommend investors to stay cautious and sell on strength," the analyst said.

Overall, trading volumes fell to 94 million shares compared with Friday's tally of 140 million.

Shares of 374 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 93 stocks closed higher, 259 declined while 22 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs5.5 billion.

TRG Pakistan was the volume leader with 11.1 million shares, losing Rs1.71 to close at Rs38.09. It was followed by Jahangir Siddiqui and Company with 7.3 million shares, gaining Rs1.04 to close at Rs22.01 and Azgard Nine with 6.6 million shares, gaining Rs0.70 to close at Rs13.79.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs24.5 million during the trading session, according to data compiled by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.