Market watch: KSE-100 snaps five-session winning streak

Benchmark index decreases 91.69 points to settle at 42,115.31

KARACHI:

Bears and bulls tried to wrestle control over the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Monday and the former managed to dominate proceedings.

Political uncertainty in the wake of upcoming meeting of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) – an alliance of opposition parties – scheduled for December 8 impacted the investment climate.

The benchmark KSE-100 index oscillated between red and green zones, touching intra-day high and low of 114 and 160 points. The bearish trend was driven by cement and oil stocks amid uncertainty in global crude oil prices.

Moreover, unimpressive trade data, with trade deficit marginally widening to $9.6 billion in first five months of the current fiscal year on the back of a nominal increase in exports and imports, adversely impacted the positive momentum, pulling the stock index down following five days of consecutive advance.

At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index recorded a decrease of 91.69 points, or 0.22%, to settle at 42,115.31 points.

Arif Habib Limited, in its report, said the market traded range bound, although it opened on a positive note with +41 points. “In the session, the index swayed between +114 points and -160 points, demonstrating investors’ lack of interest due to concern over political uncertainty,” it said.

Selling pressure was mostly reflected in cement sector stocks, however, exploration and production stocks also failed to perform better amid sticky oil prices in the international market.

Technology sector stocks performed relatively well with NetSol hitting its upper circuit and TRG Pakistan also trading in the positive zone.

Although Aisha Steel Mills and International Steels increased their product prices, the market did not react as positively as it could have.

Sectors contributing to the performance included exploration and production (-54 points), cement (-26 points), oil and gas marketing companies (-14 points), banks (-12 points), power (-12 points), technology (+19 points) and insurance (+14 points).

Individually, stocks that contributed positively to the index included TRG Pakistan (+16 points), Adamjee Insurance Company (+13 points), Bank AL Habib (+12 points), Nestle Pakistan (+9 points) and Engro Polymer and Chemicals (+7 points).

Stocks that contributed negatively were Oil and Gas Development Company (-27 points), Pakistan Petroleum (-25 points), MCB (-15 points), Dawood Hercules (-10 points) and Lucky Cement (-10 points).

JS Global analyst Maaz Mulla said the benchmark KSE-100 index blew hot and cold and touched an intra-day low of -160 points. It closed the session at 42,115, down 92 points.

A total of 380 million shares were traded. Top contributors to the total volume were TRG Pakistan (+2.1%), Unity Foods (+2%), Jahangir Siddiqui & Co (+1.4%), Pakistan Refinery (-0.8%) and Avanceon Limited (+6.6%) with a cumulative 121 million shares changing hands.

In last 30 minutes of the trading session, profit-booking was observed. Oil and Gas Development Company (-1.8%), Pakistan Petroleum (-1.8%), MCB (-0.9%), Lucky Cement (-0.5%) and Bank Alfalah (-1.6%) were the major losers.

As per news reports, cement sales dropped 23% whereas its exports fell 12% on a month-on-month basis. Fauji Cement (-1.4%), Power Cement (-1.4%), Cherat Cement (-0.8%), Maple Leaf Cement (-1.1%) and Pioneer Cement (-1%) lost ground.

“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 380.5 million shares compared with Friday’s tally of 427.9 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs17.9 billion.

Shares of 399 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 154 stocks closed higher, 219 declined and 26 remained unchanged.

TRG Pakistan was the volume leader with 41.3 million shares, gaining Rs1.5 to close at Rs74.07. It was followed by Unity Foods with 33.3 million shares, gaining Rs0.55 to close at Rs27.78 and Ghani Global (R) with 18 million shares, losing Rs0.11 to close at Rs2.97.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs101.6 million worth of shares during the trading session, according to data compiled by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan.