The Pakistan Stock Exchange had a volatile trading session on Monday as investors braced for Morgan Stanley Capital International’s (MSCI) decision on potential downgrade of Pakistan from Emerging Markets to Frontier Markets, due on September 7.
The KSE-100 index oscillated between red and green zones throughout the day due to uncertainty about the MSCI decision and it closed with a loss of 39 points.
Bearish investor sentiment at the bourse stemmed from the deteriorating macros coupled with the weakening Pakistani rupee against the greenback.
Weighed down by the negative triggers, the index-heavy automobile, bank, cement and fertiliser sectors received a battering as major names closed in the red.
Local oil sectors outshined on the back of a spike in global crude prices during the day as they rose $1 before retreating after the close of local market.
Earlier, trading began with a jump but volatility pulled the KSE-100 index lower soon. From this point onwards, the market turned range bound and kept swinging on both sides of the fence.
Profit-booking accelerated in the final hour and the market ended the day down.
At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index recorded a decrease of 38.95 points, or 0.08%, to settle at 46,918.52.
JS Global analyst Maaz Mulla said that the KSE-100 index fluctuated between a low and high of -69 and +130 points respectively throughout the day, eventually closing down by 39 points at 46,918 as pressure mounted.
Selling pressure was witnessed in the banking and refinery sectors where UBL (-1.3%), HBL (-0.7%), Attock Refinery (-2.3%), Byco (-2.1%) and National Refinery (-2.2%) lost ground.
The cement sector closed negative despite an increase in cement dispatches for August 2021 when total cement sales rose by 22.77% to 4.336 million tons from 3.531 million tons in the same month of last year.
Fauji Cement (-2.8%), Cherat Cement (-1.4%), Power Cement (-1%) and Lucky Cement (-0.5%) were the major losers of the sector.
“Going forward, we recommend investors to remain cautious and wait for clarity on the MSCI reclassification proposal, which is scheduled to be announced tomorrow (Tuesday),” the analyst said.
Overall trading volumes dropped to 417.9 million shares compared with Friday’s tally of 465 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs12 billion.
Shares of 382 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 164 stocks closed higher, 203 declined and 15 remained unchanged.
TPL Corp was the volume leader with 59.7 million shares, gaining Rs1.32 to close at Rs24.60. It was followed by Service Fabrics (R) with 35.7 million shares, losing Rs0.66 to close at Rs4.21 and Telecard Limited with 31 million shares, losing Rs0.09 to close at Rs21.83.
Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs589.6 million worth of shares during the trading session, according to data compiled by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan.
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