Market watch: KSE-100 snaps three-day winning streak

Benchmark index drops 223.94 points to settle at 40,807.09

KARACHI:

Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) succumbed to selling pressure on Friday following three days of consecutive advance.

Bears returned to the bourse as the benchmark KSE-100 index spiralled downwards amid pressure on selected sectors. Market participants were discouraged by the uncertainty in global oil markets as crude prices remained mixed ahead of an OPEC+ meeting early next week.

The KSE-100 index continued to oscillate between red and green zones. Although overall sentiment was positive, investors still opted to book profit and switch positions.

Selling activity was noted in stocks across the board with the cement sector remaining under pressure over anticipation of a decline in cement dispatches.

Earlier, the KSE-100 index opened its first session on a negative note and marched south, losing 133 points. However, tables turned during the session and investors resorted to stock buying. But the positive momentum did not last long and the index closed in the red.

At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index recorded a decrease of 223.94 points, or 0.55%, to settle at 40,807.09 points.

In its report, Arif Habib Limited stated that the market opened on a negative note losing 54 points. It closed the first session down by 133 points.

The KSE-100 index lost a total of 278 points, however, buying activity in banking, cement, refinery and technology sectors helped the index recoup some of the losses.

Exploration and production and cement stocks came under selling pressure primarily due to concern over slowdown in cement dispatches as well as steady crude prices.

Sectors contributing to the performance included exploration and production (-86 points), cement (-51 points), fertiliser (-38 points), banks (-31 points) and oil and gas marketing (-23 points).

Individually, stocks that contributed positively to the index included TRG Pakistan (+40 points), Millat Tractors (+17 points), Colgate-Palmolive (+11 points), Unity Foods (+7 points) and Standard Chartered Bank (+4 points).

Stocks that contributed negatively were Pakistan Petroleum (-33 points), Lucky Cement (-28 points), Oil and Gas Development Company (-24 points), Engro Corporation (-22 points) and Hubco (-18 points).

JS Global analyst Maaz Mulla said the KSE-100 index closed in the red by losing 224 points at 40,807.

Trading activity remained on the higher side and volumes came in at 398 million shares, up 2% day-on-day, whereas traded value stood at $83 million, down 18%.

TRG Pakistan (+6.6%), Unity Foods (+2.5%), K-Electric (+0.3%), Hum Network (+5.1%) and Maple Leaf Cement (-1.4%) were the volume leaders, with a cumulative 162 million shares changing hands.

“Oil stocks were in the red as crude oil prices edged lower in the international market,” he said, adding that Pakistan Oilfields (-1.4%), Oil and Gas Development Company (-1.6%) and Pakistan Petroleum (-2.3%) were major losers of the sector.

“Moving forward, we expect the market to remain bearish due to political uncertainty and global rise in corona cases. Hence, we recommend investors to avail themselves of any opportunity to buy on dips,” the analyst said.

Shares of 394 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 195 stocks closed higher, 181 declined and 18 remained unchanged.

Unity Foods was the volume leader with 53.5 million shares, gaining Rs0.62 to close at Rs25.46. It was followed by TRG Pakistan with 46 million shares, gaining Rs3.82 to close at Rs62.07 and K-Electric with 23.1 million shares, gaining Rs0.01 to close at Rs3.76.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs137.9 million worth of shares during the trading session, according to data compiled by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan.