Market watch: KSE-100 falls despite positive triggers

Benchmark index dives 283.50 points to settle at 47,828.71

KARACHI:

The Pakistan Stock Exchange snapped its three-day winning streak on Tuesday and the KSE-100 index dropped 284 points despite a host of positive triggers.

The receipt of $2.75 billion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) by the State Bank of Pakistan to cope with Covid-19 challenges failed to reverse direction of the market.

In addition, strong financial results posted by index-heavy companies proved insufficient to arrest the market’s decline. Profit-booking was witnessed across the board as market participants offloaded their holdings.

Earlier, trading kicked off with a dip in the KSE-100 index and the downtrend persisted throughout the session. A fresh selling spree, emerging towards the close, widened the losses.

At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index recorded a decrease of 283.50 points, or 0.59%, to settle at 47,828.71.

A report of Arif Habib Limited stated that after posting an increase in the past three consecutive sessions, the index saw across-the-board profit-booking with PSO being the prominent one due to lower-than-anticipated payout despite high earnings.

Similarly, cement, steel, exploration and production sectors faced selling by investors, which kept the index under pressure. The index lost 373 points during the session and closed down by 284 points.

The technology sector showed mixed reaction with Avanceon, NetSol and Systems Limited floating above previous day’s closing prices, the report said.

JS Global analyst Neelum Naz said that profit-taking continued across the board throughout the day, erasing 284 points from the KSE-100 index as it closed at 47,829.

“The market was unable to break the psychological resistance of 48,200 points,” she said.

On the economic front, the State Bank of Pakistan reported that the country had received $2.75 billion from the IMF under its new allocations for member countries.

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

Overall trading volumes contracted to 395 million shares compared with Monday’s tally of 397.7 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs13.7 billion.

Shares of 483 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 171 stocks closed higher, 297 declined and 15 remained unchanged.

WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 43.7 million shares, losing Rs0.03 to close at Rs3.31. It was followed by Telecard Limited with 31 million shares, gaining Rs0.55 to close at Rs17.88 and Ghani Global Holdings with 25.7 million shares, gaining Rs0.63 to close at Rs48.27.