Market watch: KSE-100 finishes in red, retreats 41 points

Benchmark index decreases 0.11% to settle at 39,049.08

KARACHI: Bearish trading was witnessed at the Pakistan Stock Exchange on Friday as the index once again retreated to finish in the red.

After a brief open in the positive, the KSE-100 index dived nearly 310 points on concerns over Moody's warnings regarding Pakistan's debt repayment situation. Investors were concerned about the falling foreign exchange reserves, which led to the selling pressure. However, the market soon recovered and staged a modest recovery to finish just 41 points in the red. Slight volatility was witnessed in the latter half of the session as the index oscillated between red and green zones before finishing negative.

At the end of trading, the benchmark KSE 100-share Index recorded a decrease of 41.2 points or 0.11% to settle at 39,049.08.



JS Global analyst Maaz Mulla said the index movements were reflective of a seesaw, where the local bourse juggled between green and red, making an intraday low of 310 points, and an intraday high of 188 points.

On the news front, the PTI-led government decided to revise downward all the macroeconomic targets through upcoming mini-budget, including slashing down the real GDP growth target while allowing upward revision in the budget deficit for the current financial year.

"Major attraction came from pharmaceutical sector on the back of the news that the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP), with the approval of the federal government, announced up to 15% hike in the prices of medicines, apart from life-saving drugs," he remarked.

Searle (+5%), Abbot (+5%), Ferozsons (+5%), GlaxoSmithKline (+5%) and AGP (+5%) all closed at their respective upper circuits.

Mixed sentiments were witnessed in the banking space where HBL (+0.7%) and Bank Al-Falah (+1.1%) closed in the green zone, whereas UBL (-0.3%) and Allied Bank (-1.0%) closed in the red zone.

"[We] expect the local equity market to remain choppy and volatile on the back of serious economic concerns," the analyst added.



Overall, trading volumes increased to 123.57 million shares compared with Thursday's tally of 112.05 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs6.4 billion.

Shares of 349 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 142 stocks closed higher, 175 declined and 32 remained unchanged.

K-Electric was the volume leader with 13.92 million shares, gaining Rs0.10 to close at Rs6.31. It was followed by Sui Southern Gas with 8.5 million shares, losing Rs1.31 to close at Rs25.30 and TRG Pakistan with 8 million shares, losing Rs0.46 to close at Rs23.26.

Foreign institutional investors were net buyers of Rs182.77 million worth of shares during the trading session, according to data compiled by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan.