PHOTO: AFP
The renewed selling pressure pushed the market down to a three-year low around noon.
"Rollover of futures contracts and uncertainty on economic and IMF (International Monetary Fund) fronts are affecting local equities," Topline Securities CEO Mohammad Sohail said while talking to The Express Tribune.
JS Research senior analyst Atif Zafar said top-level changes at the finance ministry had made things uncertain. "It is assumed that the IMF loan programme will be agreed on stringent conditions since Abdul Hafeez Shaikh has taken over as adviser to the PM on finance," he said.
Shaikh was considered close to the international financial institutions, "so there is uncertainty whether the key interest rate will be hiked further and whether the rupee will depreciate further," he said.
Technical analysis suggested, according to Zafar, the market may go down by another 1,500-2,000 points in the current bearish cycle.
Across-the-board selling was witnessed at the bourse, however, after hitting an intra-day low of 36,136.11 points, the market made some recovery.
At the end of trading, the benchmark KSE 100-share Index recorded a decrease of 497.66 points, or 1.35%, to settle at 36,404.03.
Moreover, JS Global analyst Danish Ladhani said the bourse had a dull trading session where it touched a low of -766 points. The equity market came under pressure on continued selling by local institutions, he said.
Ghandhara Industries (-5%), Ghandhara Nissan (-5%) and Honda Atlas Cars (-5%) closed at their respective lower circuits in the auto sector.
Pak Suzuki Motor Company (-4.8%) announced its 1QCY19 results with loss per share (LPS) of Rs11.92 against earnings per share (EPS) of Rs10.99 during 1QCY18 with no cash payout.
Lucky Cement (-2.2%), DG Khan Cement (-2.8%) and Fauji Cement (-3.2%) were major laggards from the cement sector. Engro (-1.2%) and Dawood Hercules (-3.8%) were major laggards in the fertiliser sector, which erased 53 points from the index.
Mixed sentiments were witnessed in the financial sector where HBL (-1.7%) closed in the red whereas MCB Bank (+0.3%) and UBL (+0.2%) remained positive.
HBL (-1.7%), Pakistan Petroleum (-1%), NBP (-3.1%), Lucky Cement (-2.2%), Fauji Fertiliser Company (-0.5%), Hubco (-1%) and Oil and Gas Development Company (-1.1%) were among the top stocks that cumulatively struck 136 points off the index.
The traded value for the day stood at $35 million, up 13% and volumes came in at 120 million shares, down 5%, the analyst said.
Major contribution to the total market volumes came from Lotte Chemical (+0.5%), K-Electric (-2.5%), SNGPL (-4.7%) and The Bank of Punjab (-3.6%).
"We expect the bourse to remain choppy and volatile. We recommend investors to stay cautious in the short run ahead of IMF meetings," he added.
Overall, trading volumes decreased to 119.6 million shares compared with Monday's tally of 125.96 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs5.01 billion.
Shares of 330 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 62 stocks closed higher, 251 declined and 17 remained unchanged.
Lotte Chemical was the volume leader with 12 million shares, gaining Rs0.08 to close at Rs16.16. It was followed by K-Electric with 9.9 million shares, losing Rs0.12 to close at Rs4.69 and Sui Northern Gas Pipelines with 8.2 million shares, losing Rs3.61 to close at Rs73.74.
Foreign institutional investors were net buyers of Rs606.5 million worth of shares during the trading session, according to data compiled by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan.
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