Market watch: Stocks close in red in absence of triggers

KARACHI:

The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) extended its losses and retreated nearly 100 points on Wednesday in the absence of major positive triggers that could provide direction to the market.

Investor sentiment was dampened by uncertainty in global equity markets and resurging coronavirus cases in the country.

Moreover, investors avoided taking fresh positions ahead of financial result announcements due to begin next week.

On the news front, Pakistan floated Eurobonds of different tenors worth $1 billion on returns of up to 8.5% to build the country’s foreign exchange reserves.

Bears and bulls continued to wrestle during the trading session with the former dominating most of the market proceedings.

At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index recorded a decrease of 98.24 points, or 0.21%, to settle at 47,247.92.

Arif Habib Limited, in its report, stated that the market faced persistent selling pressure from institutional investors and saw a decline of 311 points during the day. It closed the session down by 98 points.

Cement, exploration and production, bank, oil and gas marketing companies and refinery sectors came under selling pressure whereas technology and steel sectors contributed positively to the KSE-100 index.

Sectors contributing to the performance included exploration and production (-52 points), tobacco (-29 points), cement (-20 points), textile (-11 points), technology (+25 points) and pharmaceutical (+12 points).

Individually, stocks that contributed positively to the index included TRG Pakistan (+26 points), HBL (+25 points), AGP Limited (+14 points), Cherat Cement (+7 points) and Pakistan International Bulk Terminal (+6 points).

Stocks that contributed negatively were Pakistan Tobacco Company (-29 points), Pakistan Oilfields (-19 points), Kohat Cement (-14 points), Pakistan Petroleum (-12 points) and Bank AL Habib (-12 points).

JS Global analyst Muhammad Mubashir said that the downtrend continued at the bourse as the benchmark KSE-100 index closed at 47,247 with a loss of 98 points.

“Profit-taking was seen across the board,” he said, adding that the market managed to sustain the psychological support level of 47,000 points (after rebounding from 47,034), but it closed the session in the red.

“Going forward, we recommend investors to adopt a buy-on-dip strategy in cement, steel and textile sectors,” the analyst said.

Overall trading volumes dropped to 412.2 million shares compared with Tuesday’s tally of 541.3 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs14.97 billion.

Shares of 412 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 172 stocks closed higher, 222 declined and 18 remained unchanged.

Fauji Foods was the volume leader with 41.2 million shares, gaining Rs1.21 to close at Rs19.55. It was followed by WorldCall Telecom with 30.2 million shares, gaining Rs0.05 to close at Rs3.91 and TPL Corp with 20.3 million shares, gaining Rs1.19 to close at Rs17.10.

Foreign institutional investors were net buyers of Rs41.4 million worth of shares during the trading session, according to data compiled by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan.