The Pakistan Stock Exchange witnessed range bound trading on Thursday as low investor participation pulled the KSE-100 index down by 107 points.
Optimistic car sales figures, which depicted triple digit growth in vehicle dispatches in July 2021 on a year-on-year basis, failed to entice investors and major names from the automobile sector ended the day with a loss.
Similarly, market participants overlooked the strong financial results announced by companies and trading remained lacklustre throughout the session.
The session kicked-off on a positive note, however, lack of investor participation coupled with a sombre mood dragged the index downward. A buying spree, emerging in the final hours, helped alleviate the losses.
At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index recorded a decrease of 106.62 points, or 0.23%, to settle at 47,270.76.
A report from Arif Habib Limited stated that after posting an uptick on Wednesday, the index again traded range bound between +179 points and -202 points, closing the session -115 points (unadjusted).
“Market poised for a clear trigger in disregard to the announcement of infrastructure projects by the prime minister, which could have impacted stock prices of listed cement and steel sectors.”
Profit-taking was observed across the board except for some blue chip stocks, with nominal price gains.
Ongoing earnings season has so far turned out to show muted response from investors, especially with respect to earnings of Attock Group where the pertinent stocks gave nominal and temporary upside, the report added.
JS Global analyst Neelum Naz said that after trading between the range of 47,556 and 47,175 points, the KSE-100 eventually closed at 47,271 level, posting a loss of 107 points for the day.
On the news front, the federal minister for planning and special initiatives opposed the approval of the Refinery Policy, arguing that the Cabinet Committee on Energy (CCOE) was the right forum to take up refining policy.
Attock Refinery (-1.9%), National Refinery (-1.9%) Byco Petrolem (-0.8%) and Pakistan Refinery (-1.5%) all lost ground and eventually closed in the red zone.
In the ongoing result season, Meezan Bank (3.7%) announced its half-year earnings of Rs9 per share with an interim cash dividend of Rs1.5 per share and bonus issue of 15%.
“Going forward, the market is expected to further correct amid lack of triggers and thin volumes,” she said. “Investors are advised to exercise caution and adopt a buy on dips strategy in steel, technology, cement and automobile sectors.”
Overall trading volumes dropped to 230.2 million shares compared with Wednesday’s tally of 382.6 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs11.6 billion.
Shares of 458 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 106 stocks closed higher, 329 declined and 23 remained unchanged.
TRG Pakistan was the volume leader with 19.2 million shares, gaining Rs3.69 to close at Rs163.92. It was followed by Ghani Global Holdings with 15.1 million shares, losing Rs0.01 to close at Rs43.42 and WorldCall Telecom with 11.8 million shares, losing Rs0.06 to close at Rs3.37.
Foreign institutional investors were net buyers of Rs254.2 million worth of shares during the trading session, according to data compiled by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan.
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