Market watch: KSE-100 extends losses, falls over 150 points

Benchmark index sheds 0.31% to settle at 48,480.90

KARACHI:

Selling pressure continued to dominate trading at the Pakistan Stock Exchange on Wednesday as the benchmark KSE-100 index extended losses from the previous session and recorded a decline of over 150 points.

A lack of positive triggers and the upcoming Financial Action Task Force (FATF) meeting on Pakistan’s status, scheduled later this month, forced investors to take a cautious stance and they resorted to profit-taking.

Upbeat car sales data, which showed a triple-digit growth of 247% in May 2021, failed to entice market participants.

Earlier, trading began with a spike and market players poured investment into selected stocks, however, the KSE-100 index failed to maintain the momentum as bulls withdrew and bears took over.

At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index recorded a decrease of 151.66 points, or 0.31%, to settle at 48,480.90.

Arif Habib Limited, in its report, stated that the market saw persistent selling pressure which was felt across the board. The index traded between -201 points and +246 points.

In the exploration and production sector, Oil and Gas Development Company and Pakistan Petroleum both traded below previous day’s closing price. However, Pakistan Oilfields registered an uptick in its stock price.

The cement sector traded in a narrow range, the report added. K-Electric and WorldCall Telecom kept their top slots, but volumes remained relatively low.

Sectors contributing to the performance included textile (+25 points), cement (-54 points), banks (-33 points), chemical (-24 points), fertiliser (-17 points) and pharmaceutical (-16 points).

Individually, stocks that contributed positively to the index included Hubco (+27 points), Pakistan Tobacco (+17 points), Pakistan Oilfields (+16 points), Kohinoor Textile Mills (+16 points) and Services Industries (+9 points).

Stocks that contributed negatively were Engro Corporation (-21 points), Pakistan Petroleum (-17 points), Colgate-Palmolive (-15 points), K-Electric (-14 points) and DG Khan Cement (-14 points).

JS Global analyst Maaz Mulla said that the market started trading at a high of 48,878, but soon lost steam and slid to close negative (-152 points) at 48,481.

Total traded volume declined to 937 million shares from 1.22 billion shares in the previous session. Volume leaders of the day were K-Electric (-4.7%), WorldCall Telecom (-3.3%), Byco Petroleum (-1.2%), Hascol Petroleum (+2.6%) and Ghani Global Glass (+7.4%).

The analyst stated, “It is hoped that there will be good news for Pakistan at the FATF plenary session starting on June 21 as Islamabad has implemented 26 of the 27 points of the FATF action plan.”

An overall decline was witnessed in the cement and steel sectors where Cherat Cement (-2.6%), Power Cement (-1.7%), DG Khan Cement (-2.1%), Maple Leaf Cement (-1.7%), International Industries (-2.9%), Mughal Iron and Steel Industries (-2.7%), Aisha Steel Mills (-2.3%) and International Steels (-1.4%) were the major losers.

“Moving forward, it is recommended to investors to take advantage of any dip in construction and export-oriented sectors,” the analyst said.

Overall trading volumes fell to 936.7 million shares compared with Tuesday’s tally of 1.2 billion. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs22.4 billion.

Shares of 416 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 171 stocks closed higher, 221 declined and 24 remained unchanged.

K-Electric was the volume leader with 114.97 million shares, losing Rs0.22 to close at Rs4.47. It was followed by WorldCall Telecom with 87.3 million shares, losing Rs0.13 to close at Rs3.84 and Byco Petroleum with 63.2 million shares, losing Rs0.16 to close at Rs12.86.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs340.6 million worth of shares during the trading session, according to data compiled by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan.