The Pakistan Stock Exchange reversed its trend on Tuesday and posted a modest rally in a roller coaster session as skeptical investors struggled to find respite amid gloomy macroeconomic outlook of the country. Despite volatility, the benchmark KSE-100 index managed to add 130 points and the market closed above 44,000-point level once again.
The tussle between bulls and bears prevailed throughout the day and kept the trading environment turbulent.
Uncertainty over the mini-budget coupled with concerns over resumption of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme continued to hamper the investors’ confidence.
Earlier, trading kicked off with a spike and the index gained over 200 points in early hours. However, uncertainty encouraged participants to offload scrips and profit-taking erased few of the gains by the end of the day.
At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index recorded an increase of 130.3 points, or 0.3%, to settle at 44,043.74.
A report from Arif Habib Limited stated that the market continued to remain volatile due to the roll-over week and upcoming mini-budget.
Profit-taking was witnessed in the first trading hour while the market battled between the bulls and bears throughout the day.
Main board volumes remained on the dull note due to lack of any trigger whereas activity continued to remain sideways as market witnessed hefty volumes in the third tier stocks.
Sectors contributing to the performance included technology and communication (+59 points), oil and gas exploration companies (+44 points), cement (+9 points) automobile assembler (+9 points) and oil and gas marketing companies (+7 points), the report stated.
JS Global analyst Muhammad Mubashir said that the market remained lacklustre over rising concerns regarding the political situation, resumption of IMF programme and announcement of mini-budget.
Major contributions to the traded volume of 143 million shares came from TRG Pakistan (4.6%), Hum Network (3.4%), K-Electric Limited (0.6%), Unity Foods Limited (0.1%) and WorldCall Telecom (0%).
“Going forward, we expect this range-bound activity to continue. We recommend investors to avail any downside as an opportunity to buy in the banking and exploration and production sectors,” the analyst said.
Overall trading volumes increased to 143.45 million shares compared with Monday’s tally of 114.67 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs4.99 billion.
Shares of 356 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 163 stocks closed higher, 168 declined and 25 remained unchanged.
Unity Foods (R) was the volume leader with 18.87 million shares, losing Rs0.42 to close at Rs1.13. It was followed by TRG Pakistan with 12.41 million shares, gaining Rs5.24 to close at Rs118.21 and Hum Network with 11.75 million shares, gaining Rs0.22 to close at Rs6.72.
Foreign institutional investors were net buyers of Rs242.65 million worth of shares during the trading session, according to data compiled by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan.
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