Market watch: Bearish spell persists as KSE-100 drops 585 points

With Rs2.1b foreign selling, benchmark index settles at 44,363.70

KARACHI:

The ongoing bear-run continued at the Pakistan Stock Exchange on Wednesday as the benchmark KSE-100 index offloaded close to 600 points in a roller-coaster session.

Cumulatively, the market has lost over 2,100 points since the start of the week.

Panic over the reported stringent conditions laid down by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) forced investors to book profit. On the other hand, poor economic cues resulted in massive foreign selling during the session.

Despite an understanding reached by Pakistan and the IMF, the rupee continued to depreciate against the US dollar, which further dampened investor spirits.

Earlier, trading began with a decline, however, the KSE-100 index staged a rebound by midday and traded in the green zone.

The market could not sustain the uptrend due to weak investor sentiment and fell steadily for the rest of the session. The selling spree accelerated in the final hour, which inflated the losses.

At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index recorded a decline of 584.82 points, or 1.3%, to settle at 44,363.70.

A report of Arif Habib Limited stated that bears continued to dominate the bulls for the third straight session in the current week as investors were worried about the upcoming mini-budget.

Moreover, the IMF rejected Pakistan’s request to keep a door open for borrowing from the central bank and also did not agree on any meaningful accountability of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).

The third day of the rollover week at the bourse remained under pressure despite attractive stock valuations. An across-the-board selling was witnessed.

On the institutional front, there was a cautious stance due to concerns over the foreign selling spree on the upcoming MSCI re-balancing day.

JS Global analyst Waqar Iqbal stated that the KSE-100 index was dragged down by 741 points in intra-day trading.

The market faced this reaction before the announcement of mini-budget, removal of sales tax exemptions and rollover settlement while selling pressure persisted for the whole day.

The KSE-100 index closed down by 585 points at 44,364. Total traded volume stood at 310 million shares.

“Cautious approach is advisable as the market is likely to face more pressure in the upcoming sessions with the overhang of pre-conditions related to the IMF loan programme continuing to dent market sentiment,” the analyst said.

Overall trading volumes rose to 310.4 million shares compared with Tuesday’s tally of 264.6 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs12.95 billion.

Shares of 341 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 76 stocks closed higher, 245 declined and 20 remained unchanged.

TRG Pakistan was the volume leader with 26.5 million shares, gaining Rs1.76 to close at Rs90.11. It was followed by WorldCall Telecom with 24.7 million shares, losing Rs0.06 to close at Rs2.11 and TPL Properties with 24.1 million shares, losing Rs3.37 to close at Rs42.39.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs2.15 billion worth of shares during the trading session, according to data compiled by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan.