Market Watch: Foreign selling drags KSE-100 below 44,000

KARACHI:

Bears held their firm grip over the Pakistan Stock Exchange for the fourth consecutive day on Thursday and dragged the KSE-100 index below 44,000 points in the wake of a handful of discouraging developments.

With the latest fall, the KSE-100 index has plunged over 2,550 points since the beginning of the current week.

The petroleum dealers’ strike across the country signalled a slump in economic activity, which accelerated the market’s decline.

Investors also weighed the impact of the spike in Pakistan’s debt pile to historic levels and resorted to offloading their stockholdings.

Moreover, expectations of the sharp appreciation of the rupee against the US dollar following an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) were dashed, adding to the woes of market participants.

Foreign selling continued at the bourse, which further fuelled the market’s decline. Earlier, trading began on a positive note, however, the market was unable to sustain the uptrend and began its descent within the initial hour.

The index fell steadily throughout the session but late-session buying erased some of the losses.

At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index recorded a decline of 427.95 points, or 0.96%, to settle at 43,935.75.

A report of Arif Habib Limited stated that bears ruled the bulls for the fourth consecutive session in the current week due to concerns over rupee depreciation and the foreign selling spree.

The rollover week continued to remain under pressure despite attractive stock valuations in terms of low price-to-earnings multiples and high dividend yields.

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Technology stocks were in the limelight throughout the day as traders placed bets on high-beta stocks to make quick gains.

On the flip side, institutional investors went for value hunting in the last trading hour, the report said.

JS Global analyst Waqar Iqbal said that the market saw the continuation of selling pressure from previous sessions.

“Foreign selling kept the market under pressure, which led to a decline of 428 points in the index that closed at 43,936,” he said.

Total traded volumes remained thin at 195 million shares with TPL Properties (+0.8%), Byco Petroleum (+1.9%) and Hubco (-3.1%) being the volume leaders.

“We believe market participants are now keeping a close watch on announcements on the economic side, where it is expected that the inflation reading for November will set the direction for the index,” the analyst said.

Overall trading volumes plunged to 195.2 million shares compared with Wednesday’s tally of 310.4 million.

The value of shares traded during the day was Rs8.4 billion. Shares of 328 companies were traded.

At the end of the day, 121 stocks closed higher, 185 declined and 22 remained unchanged.

TPL Properties XB was the volume leader with 16.3 million shares, gaining Rs0.34 to close at Rs42.73.

It was followed by Byco Petroleum with 12.2 million shares, gaining Rs0.12 to close at Rs6.44 and Hub Power Company with 9.5 million shares, losing Rs2.25 to close at Rs69.94.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs1.66 billion worth of shares during the trading session, according to data compiled by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan