KARACHI:
The stock market underwent a volatile ride on Monday, hitting intraday low of 42,372 points before institutional buying helped stocks to recover and close almost flat.
The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) opened positive on the back of interest in oil and banking stocks. The interest in oil shares came in the wake of government’s decision to delay the plan of oil price hedging.
The benchmark KSE-100 index, however, failed to sustain the positive momentum and continued to drop as investors resorted to profit-booking. Despite an upbeat remittance data announced during the session, many investors chose to remain on the sidelines.
The upward momentum was further fuelled by anticipation of a reduction in the policy rate in the upcoming monetary policy announcement.
At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index recorded an increase of 0.64 point at 42,531.31 points.
Arif Habib Limited, in its report, stated that the market traded in a range of -163 points and +190 points. It closed the session slightly in the green.
“Selling pressure was observed in cement, exploration and production, steel and refinery sectors,” it said. “Banks and oil marketing companies (Pakistan State Oil and Hascol Petroleum), however, saw gradual accumulation, helping the index to post gains during the trading session.”
Volumes remained relatively low keeping in view the recent series of 700 million shares that the bourse witnessed in the previous week.
Oil and gas marketing companies posted highest trading volumes of 80 million shares, followed by banks (61.3 million) and food companies (54.7 million).
Individually, stocks that contributed positively to the index included Pakistan State Oil (+17 points), HBL (+17 points), Hubco (+17 points), MCB (+15 points) and Hascol Petroleum (+12 points).
Stocks that contributed negatively were Pakistan Petroleum (-23 points), DG Khan Cement (-16 points), K-Electric (-9 points), Systems Limited (-8 points) and Sui Northern Gas Pipelines (-8 points).
JS Global analyst Maaz Mulla said the KSE-100 index juggled between green and red zones, and closed flat at 42,531. Overall, volumes came in at 509 million shares, while traded value stood at $88 million.
Hascol Petroleum (+4.1%), Pakistan International Bulk Terminal (+3%), Fauji Foods (+7.5%) and Unity Foods (+3.5%) cumulatively contributed around 165 million shares to the total volume.
In the cement sector, selling pressure continued in DG Khan Cement (-2.8%) and Power Cement (-1.9%) whereas Maple Leaf Cement (+1.2%), Pioneer Cement (+0.6%) and Kohat Cement (+1.1%) gained ground.
“Going forward, we expect the market to continue the similar trend and recommend investors to see any upside as an opportunity to sell,” the analyst said. “However, we recommend that any downside should be viewed as an opportunity to buy in cement, steel, consumer and banking sectors.”
Overall, trading volumes fell to 509.5 million shares compared with Friday’s tally of 526.2 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs14.5 billion.
Shares of 428 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 184 stocks closed higher, 231 declined and 13 remained unchanged.
Hascol Petroleum was the volume leader with 67.1 million shares, gaining Rs0.91 to close at Rs22.99. It was followed by Pakistan International Bulk Terminal with 42.9 million shares, gaining Rs0.40 to close at Rs13.95 and Fauji Foods with 29.9 million shares, gaining Rs1.23 to close at Rs17.7.
Foreign institutional investors were net buyers of Rs9.4 million worth of shares during the trading session, according to data compiled by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan.
COMMENTS
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ