Market watch: KSE-100 breaks 6-session losing streak, ends marginally positive

Benchmark index rises 0.06% to finish at 41,648.65

KARACHI: The KSE-100 Index ended marginally positive on Monday, ending a six-session losing streak amid volatile trading and lacklustre volumes.

The market opened positive and climbed almost 290 points in intra-day trading to close in on the 42,000 level before profit-taking erased the gains.

At close, the benchmark KSE 100-share Index recorded an increase of 25.13 points or 0.06% to settle at 41,648.65.

JS Global’s Maaz Mulla said the market witnessed yet another lacklustre session, where the benchmark KSE-100 index made an intraday high of 289 points and an intraday low of -32 to close at 41,649.


“Market opened positive as institutional participation was witnessed mainly in main board stocks,” said Mulla. “Overall volumes stood at 88 million shares, while traded value stood at $32 million. PAEL (+0.73%) led the volume chart for the day with almost 6 million shares exchanging hands.

“On the economic front, the country's current account deficit widened to the $14-billion mark in the first ten months of this fiscal year (FY18). The external account alone posted nearly a $2-billion current account deficit in April 2018. Commercial banks led the positivity where big banks such as HBL (+2.27%), NBP (+0.49%) and UBL (+1.49%) gained to close higher than the previous day’s close. Investor interest was seen in the cement sector as it closed (+0.2%) higher, where FCCL (+1.23%), MLCF (+1.53%), DGKC (+0.89%) and LUCK (+0.46%) closed in the green zone.

“E&P remained under pressure where POL (-1.23%) and OGDC (-0.84%) closed in the red despite oil prices edging higher in the international market.

“We expect the market to exhibit volatility in the coming sessions due to overall political ambiguities and lack of positive triggers in the market.”



Shares of 325 companies were traded on Monday. At the end of the day, 126 stocks closed higher, 179 declined while 20 remained unchanged.

Overall, trading volumes rose to 88 million shares compared with Friday’s tally of 82.8 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs3.7 billion.

Fauji Cement was the volume leader with 6 million shares, gaining Rs0.3 to close at Rs24.61. It was followed by Pakistan Elektron Ltd with 5.9 million shares, gaining Rs0.26 to close at Rs35.82 and Engro Polymer & Chemicals Ltd. with 5.5 million shares, losing Rs1.52 to close at Rs33.19.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs490 million worth of shares during the trading session, according to data compiled by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan.