Market watch: Index ends five-day winning streak, finishes in red

KSE-100 index inches down 6.44 points to settle at 35,697.37

KARACHI: The five-day winning streak came to an end on Monday as the KSE-100 index retreated to finish trading on a negative note with investors adopting a cautious approach ahead of announcement of the federal budget.

Trading was range bound as the index oscillated between red and green zones throughout the session. In contrast to the previous week, the investors switched positions and opted to book profits as they awaited the budget 2019-20 announcement.

However, the overall interest remained dull and the index finished just slightly in the red. Concerns over the security situation in the country and a high security alert also caused pressure in the mid-session.

At the end of trading, the benchmark KSE 100-share Index recorded a decrease of 6.44 points, or 0.02%, to settle at 35,697.37.

AHL Research, in its report, stated the market traded range bound between 93 points and 188 points.

The cement sector remained in the limelight as was the case last week and recorded trading in 21 million shares followed by technology firms (17 million) and oil and gas marketing companies (14 million), it stated.



“Investors were switching positions and were booking profits on stocks that were bought last week, resulting in the index going down. Buying activity was still intact that encouraged investors to put despondency over macro variables on the back burner and consider long-term fundamentals to take charge,” AHL said.

Topline Securities, in its report, stated after five consecutive positive sessions, the KSE-100 index remained flat in Monday’s session, losing a meagre six points.

“Weekend news flow pertaining to the continuation of corporate tax at the current level (earlier it was supposed to come down by one percentage point every year to 25%) coupled with the withdrawal of tax exemptions given to various sectors kept investors’ excitement in check,” the report added.

Overall, trading volumes decreased to 125.2 million shares compared with Friday’s tally of 142 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs5 billion.

Shares of 341 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 160 stocks closed higher, 165 declined and 16 remained unchanged.

WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 10 million shares, losing Rs0.02 to close at Rs0.77. It was followed by Maple Leaf Cement with 9.1 million shares, gaining Rs0.56 to close at Rs24.13 and Sui Northern Gas Pipelines XD with 7.1 million shares, gaining Rs2.98 to close at Rs72.18.

Foreign institutional investors were net buyers of Rs233.6 million worth of shares during the trading session, according to data compiled by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 28^th, 2019.

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