Market sheds121 points in post-budget volatile session

KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed a volatile ride in its first post-budget session on Monday, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index losing 121.28 points (-0.29 percent) to close at 41,782.92 points.
The market opened on a positive note but fell slightly deep in the red and touched the day’s low during the first 10 minutes trading. The concerns about the revival of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan programme, additional taxes imposed on listed companies in the new budget and Monetary Policy Committee meeting of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) turned the market towards profit-taking. The benchmark index recouped all the day’s loss and turned green after one hour trading but it was not the end of its roller-coaster ride which continued throughout the session.
The KSE-100 Index moved in a range of 313.83 points, showing an intraday high of 42,029.14 points and a low of 41,715.31 points.
Among other indices, the KSE All Share Index gained 80.37 points (+0.28 percent) to close at 28,334.06 points, while KMI All Share Islamic Index gained 124.95 points (+0.60 percent) to close at 20,813.91 points.
The overall market volumes increased by 14.28 million to 179.12 million shares against 164.84 million shares a session earlier. Total volumes traded for the KSE-100 Index remained 83.27 million against 78.78 million a session earlier, showing an increase of 4.49 million shares.
Among scrips, HASCOL topped the volumes with 16.37 million shares, followed by TPLP (13 million) and PRL (10.8 million). Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes included HASCOL, TPLP, PRL, BOP, and WAVES, which formed around 32 percent of total volumes.
A total of 308 companies traded shares in the stock exchange as compared to 337 a session earlier. Out of traded companies, shares of 106 closed up, shares of 180 closed down while shares of 22 companies remained unchanged. A total of 94 companies traded shares in the KSE-100 Index against 95 companies a session earlier, out of which shares of 30 companies closed up, 59 closed down and five remained unchanged.
The number of total trades increased by 8,890 to 96,291 against 87,401 a session earlier, while the value traded increased by Rs0.34 billion to Rs5.54 billion.
In terms of rupee, UPFL remained the top gainer and witnessed an increase of Rs1,067.32 (4.87 percent) per share, closing at Rs23,000. The runner-up remained NESTLE, the share price of which climbed up by Rs440 (+6.82 percent) to Rs6,890. BHAT remained the top loser in terms of rupee and witnessed a decrease of Rs95.08 (-7.5 percent) per share, closing at Rs1,172.6, followed by SFL, the share price of which fell by Rs87.66 (-7.5 percent) to close at Rs1,081.34 per share.
The sectors taking the index towards south were commercial banks (95 points), oil & gas exploration companies (76 points), investment banks/ investment companies/ securities companies (26 points), textile composite and fertilizer (24 points each). The companies which deprived the index of most of the points included HBL (53 points), OGDC (43 points), PPL (28 points), DAWH (24 points), and TRG (23 points).
The sectors taking the index towards north were automobile assembler (57 points), cement (53 points), food & personal care products (42 points), chemical (33 points), and glass & ceramics (10 points). The major companies adding points to the index remained MTL (61 points), LUCK (55 points), COLG (49 points), NESTLE (28 points), and SYS (17 points). – TLTP