Market watch: KSE-100 creeps up in lacklustre session

Benchmark index rises 20.34 points to settle at 42,047.72

KARACHI:

The Pakistan Stock Exchange had a range bound trading session on Thursday because of absence of positive triggers and the KSE-100 index managed to climb a marginal 20 points.

The index sustained the upward momentum and remained positive for the fourth successive day.

Owing to stability in international crude oil prices for the past few sessions, oil sector stocks in Pakistan’s market had lacklustre activity and minor fluctuations throughout the day.

However, hefty buying by foreign institutional investors lent modest support to the market. During the session, purchases from foreign investors soared past Rs1 billion.

As trading began, the index climbed over 350 points in the first few hours, however, lack of positive news flow erased the gains and the market traded on a flat note after midday. Later, the bullish momentum built up again but weak investor sentiment eroded the gains for the second time and the index ended the day marginally higher.

At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index recorded an increase of 20.34 points, or 0.05%, to settle at 42,047.72 points.

Arif Habib Limited, in its report, stated that the market traded range bound after a gradual, yet sketchy, increase from 39,500 points till now, which resulted in an addition of 2,500 points. However, investors still seemed perplexed due to rising cases of coronavirus and potential negative impact of a lockdown.

International crude prices remained directionless for want of a decision by OPEC+ regarding oil output. Resultantly, exploration and production sector stocks traded range bound without much excitement.

Cement and steel sectors saw cautious buying activity, however, selling pressure kept price increase in check, the report said.

JS Global analyst Danish Ladhani said the KSE-100 index touched intra-day high and low of +385 and -18 points respectively and closed at 42,048, up 20 points.

“On the economic front, ratings agency Fitch has said that Pakistan’s real GDP growth for fiscal year 2020-21 will be a meagre 0.8% and could see further downside amid the second wave of Covid-19,” he said. “Moreover, Pakistan has reported 3,499 daily Covid cases with positivity rate of 8.16%.”

A total of 420 million shares were traded during the day. Top contributors to the total volume were TRG Pakistan (-1.7%), Maple Leaf Cement (+1%), Aisha Steel Mills (+5.8%), Hascol Petroleum (-0.1%), Pakistan Refinery (+0.1%) and Unity Foods (+0.2%), making a total of 175 million shares.

Activity was witnessed across the board where pressure mainly came from HBL (-0.4%) and Oil and Gas Development Company (-0.3%) whereas Pakistan Petroleum (+0.2%), Pakistan Oilfields (+0.3%), Lucky Cement (+0.9%), MCB (+0.9%) and UBL (+0.7) closed in the green.

“Moving forward, we recommend investors to book profit on strength and see any downside as an opportunity to buy on dips,” the analyst said.

Overall, trading volumes fell to 420.3 million shares compared with Wednesday’s tally of 476.9 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs18 billion.

Shares of 400 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 171 stocks closed higher, 215 declined and 14 remained unchanged.

TRG Pakistan was the volume leader with 35.2 million shares, losing Rs1.18 to close at Rs70.07. It was followed by Maple Leaf Cement with 31 million shares, gaining Rs0.4 to close at Rs40.57 and Aisha Steel Mills with 29.7 million shares, gaining Rs0.98 to close at Rs18.02.

Foreign institutional investors were net buyers of Rs1.05 billion worth of shares during the trading session, according to data compiled by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan.