Market watch: PSX snaps four-day winning streak

Benchmark KSE-100 index dips 165.11 points to settle at 42,023

KARACHI:

A four-day buying spree ended at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Friday as investors booked profit in line with global market trends.

The reversal was attributed to world equity markets as investors continued to fret about the increasingly uncertain economic outlook.

Earlier, trading began with a sharp spike and strong investor sentiment helped the index gain nearly 200 points in early hours. However, the bourse succumbed to volatility later in the day and wiped out the gains in the second session.

At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index recorded a decrease of 165.11 points, or 0.39%, to settle at 42,023 points.

Arif Habib Limited, in its report, stated that the market remained range bound following the onslaught in international markets that saw stocks in developed countries plummet overnight.

“Local investors found it best to book profit rather than carry positions over the weekend,” it said. “Selling pressure was noted in cement, fertiliser, exploration and production and banking stocks. Among the few winners were stocks from the steel and tech sectors.”

Oil and gas marketing companies topped the volumes with trading in 92.7 million shares, followed by cement companies (86.7 million) and banks (82.2 million).

Individually, stocks that contributed positively to the index included Systems Limited (+31 points), Hascol Petroleum (+20 points), International Steels (+12 points), Jubilee Life Insurance (+11 points) and PSX (+10 points).

Stocks that contributed negatively were Hubco (-53 points), UBL (-26 points), Lucky Cement (-22 points), TRG Pakistan (-14 points) and Engro (-13 points).

JS Global analyst Maaz Mulla said profit-booking was witnessed at the bourse and the KSE-100 index largely remained in the red zone. The index hit intraday high of +104 points and intraday low of -264 points. It closed at 42,023, down 165 points.

Major laggards of the index were Hubco (-2.8%), UBL (-1.8%), Lucky Cement (-1.2%), TRG Pakistan (-2.1%), NBP (-2.4%) and PSO (-1.1%), he stated.

Top volume leaders of the bourse were Hascol (+7.5%), Unity Foods (+2.5%), Fauji Foods (+7.5%) and The Bank of Punjab (-0.9%), which cumulatively contributed 193 million shares to the total volume.

Moreover, cement and banking sectors closed in the red where Cherat Cement (-1.7%), Lucky Cement (-1.2%), Power Cement (-2.3%), ABL (-1.3%), NBP (-2.4%), UBL (-1.8%), Bank Alfalah (-0.5%) and MCB (-0.6%) were the major losers.

The steel sector bucked the declining trend where International Steels (+5.2%), International Industries (+4.8%), Ittefaq Iron Industries (+4.6%) and Amreli Steels (+2.6%) gained ground.

“Going forward, we expect the market to depict a similar trend and recommend investors to see any upside as an opportunity to sell and any downside as an opportunity to buy in cement, steel, consumer and banking sectors,” the analyst said.

Overall, trading volumes fell to 758.1 million shares compared with Thursday’s tally of 919.5 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs24.8 billion.

Shares of 419 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 180 stocks closed higher, 224 declined and 15 remained unchanged.

Hascol Petroleum was the volume leader with 73.2 million shares, gaining Rs1.50 to close at Rs21.54. It was followed by Fauji Foods with 51.7 million shares, gaining Rs1.13 to close at Rs16.23 and Unity Foods with 41.3 million shares, gaining Rs0.40 to close at Rs16.13.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs467.1 million worth of shares during the trading session, according to data compiled by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan.