Market watch: volatile session ends with marginal loss

Benchmark KSE-100 index slips 2.1 points to settle at 44,174.97

KARACHI:

Bulls and bears wrestled for control over the Pakistan Stock Exchange on Wednesday as the KSE-100 index kept fluctuating between red and green zones owing to the combination of buying and selling pressure.

As a result, the market witnessed choppy trading, ending the day marginally down.

The news of upcoming mini-budget played on investors’ mind and they resorted to offloading their stockholdings ahead of the introduction of stringent measures for resuming the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) $6 billion loan programme.

On the flip side, buying activity was largely fuelled by foreign investors, who remained net buyers during the day.

Earlier, the session kicked off on a bullish note and the KSE-100 index posted gains in the first few hours. However, market participants resorted to profit-booking by noon and dragged the index down.

From that point onwards, the index traded in a narrow range and ended the session on a flat note.

At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index recorded a decrease of 2.1 points to settle at 44,174.97.

A report of Arif Habib Limited stated that the market continued to remain choppy ahead of the mini-budget.

The government has planned to take the cabinet’s nod for the Supplementary Finance Bill, 2021 to slap highly inflationary Rs360 billion in indirect taxes.

Profit-taking was witnessed in the first trading hour and then the market saw a battle between the bulls and bears throughout the day.

Main board volumes remained lacklustre as the market continued to trade sideways, witnessing hefty volumes in third-tier stocks, the report said.

JS Global analyst Muhammad Mubashir said that range-bound activity continued at the bourse due to a lack of positive triggers. The market closed flat at 44,175.

Total traded volume stood at 152 million shares where Ghani Global Holdings (-1.6%), Unity Foods (-2.7%), TRG Pakistan (+1.1%), WorldCall Telecom (-0.9%) and Cnergyico PK (-0.9%) accounted for 30% of the aggregate volume.

“Going forward, we expect range-bound activity to continue and any clarity on the mini-budget is likely to drive the market from here onwards,” the analyst said.

“We recommend investors to avail any downside as an opportunity to buy in technology, cement and textile sectors.”

Overall trading volumes decreased to 151.8 million shares compared with Tuesday’s tally of 223.1 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs6.6 billion.

Shares of 339 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 159 stocks closed higher, 165 declined and 15 remained unchanged.

Ghani Global Holdings was the volume leader with 14.2 million shares, losing Rs0.4 to close at Rs24.59. It was followed by Unity Foods with 9.1 million shares, gaining Rs0.72 to close at Rs27.15 and TRG Pakistan with 8.5 million shares, gaining Rs1.29 to close at Rs117.53.

Foreign institutional investors were net buyers of Rs48.6 million worth of shares during the trading session, according to data compiled by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan.