PSX ends nearly flat on profit-booking

KARACHI:

Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Thursday closed nearly flat as it crept up just 29 points owing to profit-taking by investors, which restricted the market from making big leap in line with the recent trend.

The KSE-100 index remained volatile despite the emergence of positive economic indicators in recent weeks. The rollover of $3 billion in Saudi deposits in the State Bank of Pakistan, increase in exports and remittances and court’s stay order against the collection of windfall tax from banks were among the encouraging factors.

“Stocks showed recovery amid rollover of $3 billion in Saudi deposits, fall in treasury bond yields and court’s stay against the recovery of over Rs35 billion in windfall tax from banks,” said Arif Habib Corp MD Ahsan Mehanti.

“Reports of surging exports, improving key economic indicators and easing geopolitical uncertainty also played the role of catalysts in positive close at the PSX.”

At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index recorded narrow gains of 29.27 points, or 0.05%, and settled at 60,531.27.

Topline Securities, in its report, wrote that the KSE-100 index opened on a positive note and touched the intra-day high of 480 points. However, sceptical investors turned to profit-booking, pulling the index down, which finally settled at 60,531, up 0.05%.

Major positive contributors were Millat Tractors, Lucky Cement, Hub Power, Fauji Fertiliser and Systems Limited, cumulatively adding 311 points to the index.

On the flip side, MCB Bank, Engro, United Bank, TRG Pakistan and Mari Petroleum dragged the index down by 254 points, it said.

The MSCI semi-annual rebalancing was observed during the day. There were no additions and deletions in the main MSCI Frontier Index. However, in its small-cap index, Agha Steel, AGP Limited, Pak Suzuki Motor and Sazgar Engineering were added whereas Faysal Bank, Kohat Cement, Maple Leaf Cement and Shell Pakistan were removed, Topline added.

Arif Habib Limited (AHL) noted that despite a whopping 16.5% month-on-month rise, the KSE-100 came down from all-time highs. “Seasonality factor remains favourable for higher stock prices into the end of January with the target at 65k,” it said.

Globally, Pakistan ranked the fifth strongest market with US dollar returns of 15.4% (after Argentina +33%, Israel +18%, South Korea +16% and Spain +15.5%).

November was a very strong month for foreign inflows with net buying of over $30 million, a number last seen in 2019, AHL said.

Key index movers were Millat Tractors (+7.5%), Lucky Cement (+4.03%) and Hub Power (+2.15%) while major drags were MCB Bank (-3.53%), Engro (-2.31%) and United Bank (-1.73%), it added.

JS Global analyst Mohammed Waqar Iqbal said that the bourse witnessed a range-bound activity as the KSE-100 index touched the high and low of 60,982 and 60,428 points, respectively.

“Going forward, we expect range-bound activity to continue and recommend investors to view any downtrend as an opportunity to buy stocks in cement and textile sectors,” the analyst added.

Overall trading volumes decreased to 467.2 million shares compared with Wednesday’s tally of 692.2 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs18.8 billion.

Shares of 379 companies were traded. Of these, 148 stocks closed higher, 212 dropped and 19 remained unchanged.

Fauji Foods was the volume leader with trading in 34.5 million shares, gaining Rs0.54 to close at Rs9.05. It was followed by Fauji Fertiliser Bin Qasim with 33.02 million shares, gaining Rs1.67 to close at Rs24 and WorldCall Telecom with 28.1 million shares, losing Rs0.02 to close at Rs1.51.

Foreign investors were net buyers of shares worth Rs1.14 billion, according to the NCCPL.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 1^st, 2023.

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