Market watch: Lacking direction, KSE-100 continues to lose ground

Benchmark index decreases 257.47 points to close at 45,460.87

KARACHI: The stock market closed lower in another bearish session on Thursday as investors continued to stay on the sidelines.

A lack of direction and uncertainty over the Economic Survey for 2017-18, which was to be announced later in the day, prevented investors from taking fresh positions.

However, on the political front, the market reacted a little bit to the disqualification of Foreign Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif by the court for concealing his foreign work permit. After some fluctuation, the index ended the day in the red.

At close, the benchmark KSE 100-share Index recorded a decrease of 257.47 points or 0.56% to settle at 45,460.87.



Elixir Securities analyst Ali Raza said equities closed negative and the benchmark KSE-100 Index settled below 45,500 points.

He said as soon as the market opened, The Bank of Punjab (+10.4%) hit the upper price limit on better-than-expected first-quarter results.

Nearly 9.3 million shares of the bank were traded in the regular market at the upper price limit while a remarkable activity was seen in the off-market where about 49 million shares changed hands at an average of Rs11.76 per share, around 11% premium over the day’s closing price.

“The market traded in the positive zone for a brief period with the index gaining 61 points and then it continued to fall as the day progressed with key sectors including financial, cement, auto and pharmaceutical coming under institutional selling pressure,” he said.



On the political front, the Islamabad High Court disqualified Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif over the UAE work permit that dented sentiments.

Crescent Steel (-4.8%) hit the lower price limit after announcing poor results and Hub Power (-1%) closed lower on unexciting earnings.

Following the market’s close, Lucky Cement (+0.5%) announced its earnings that came slightly below expectations, but more importantly the company disclosed plans for a brownfield expansion of 2.6 million tons per annum at its Pezu Plant, scheduled to come on line by the end of 2019.

“We expect range bound trading on the last day of the week where investors will keep an eye on the federal budget to be announced tomorrow (Friday),” he added.



Overall, trading volumes decreased to 170 million shares compared with Wednesday’s tally of 181 million.

Shares of 393 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 147 stocks closed higher, 228 declined while 18 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs7.2 billion.

Unity Foods was the volume leader with 9.99 million shares, losing Rs1.34 to close at Rs31.71. It was followed by The Bank of Punjab with 9.37 million shares, gaining Rs1 to close at Rs10.59 and Nimir Resins with 8.08 million shares, gaining Rs0.29 to close at Rs12.33.

Foreign institutional investors were net buyers of Rs181 million worth of shares during the trading session, according to data compiled by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan.