PSX sheds 465 points amid govt’s certain steps for coming budget

KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) remained under selling pressure on Monday amid uncertainty regarding government measures in the upcoming budget, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index losing 465.55 points (-0.61 percent) to close at 75,517.48 points.
The market opened on a positive note and gained over 200 points within a few minutes. However, the index soon witnessed selling that pushed the index into the negative territory. The bulls did bounce back for some time, but couldn’t sustain the selling pressure. Selling was witnessed in key sectors including cement, chemical, commercial banks, fertilizer, oil and gas exploration companies, oil and gas marketing companies, and power generation and distribution.
Arif Habib Limited (AHL), one of the top brokerage houses, said in a report, “As the government prepares to announce budget FY25 on June 7th, 2024, it is strongly believed that fiscal discipline will take precedence over populist spending. The upcoming budget, likely to be in line with IMF demands, may lack ‘significant’ relief measures for the public. It is expected that the upcoming budget will center on initiatives aimed at broadening the tax base, thereby almost meeting revenue targets.”
According to Topline Securities, another brokerage house, said that investors opted to trim their stock positions near 76,000 points. “A relatively lackluster momentum has been witnessed during business hours in the backdrop of budgetary concerns and mixed IMF vibes,” it said.
The market has turned in a cautious performance as investors look for fresh positive triggers ahead of the monetary policy meeting and budget announcement. The benchmark index has surged by 84.06 percent during the last one year and 16.79 percent during the current year.
The benchmark index traded in a range of 701.82 points, showing an intraday high of 76,187.44 points and an intraday low of 75,485.62 points. Among other indices, the KSE All Share Index shed 294.77 points (-0.60 percent) to close at 48,909.83 points. Similarly, the KMI All Share Islamic Index shed 198.30 points (-0.57 percent) to close at 34,745.99 points.
Total volumes traded for the KSE-100 Index remained 195.3 million shares, while the overall market volumes remained 446.07 million shares. Among scrips, KEL topped the volumes with 55.6 million shares, followed by SYM (40.66 million) and WTL (29.47 million). Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes included KEL, SYM, WTL, DCL and HUMNL, which formed around 37 percent of total volumes.- TLTP