KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) turned bearish again on Friday, a day after breaking the three-day losing streak, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index shed 988.47 points (-1.58 percent) to close at 61,705.09 points.
The market opened on a positive note and touched the day’s high within the first 20-miunte trading. However, later the indices started coming down and turned towards the red territory after the first hour of the session. The indices remained in the red territory for the rest of the session. The benchmark index shed 4,424.93 points this week and closed the second straight week in the red.
The negative sentiments in the session was attributed to the Supreme Court’s approval of the bail for former Prime Minister Imran Khan and ex-foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi in the cypher case. The long overdue correction can be attributed to over-leveraged positions in the market, coupled with profit-taking by investors after a prolonged rally. The profit-taking was so dominant in the market that it even overshadowed the favorable performance of the country’s current account, which posted a surplus of $9 million in November.
The experts were of the view that correction was expected after the massive bull-run. Moreover, both the year-end and quarter-end are nearing, and the next week will be rollover week, so the market may face jitters in the coming days.
The benchmark index traded in a range of 1,426.08 points, showing an intraday high of 62,995.21 points and an intraday low of 61,569.13 points. Among other indices, the KSE All Share Index shed 584.40 points (-1.42 percent) to close at 41,281.98 points. Similarly, the KMI All Share Islamic Index shed 462.83 points (-1.53 percent) to close at 30,152.71 points.
Total volumes traded for the KSE-100 Index decreased by 193.67 million shares to 333.55 million shares against 527.22 million traded in the previous session. Similarly, the overall market volumes decreased by 140.83 million shares to 671.55 million shares against 812.38 million shares traded a session earlier.
Among scrips, KEL topped the volumes with 114 million shares, followed by FFL (86 million) and CNERGY (70.08 million). Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes included KEL, FFL, CNERGY, WTL, and KOSM, which formed over 52 percent of total volumes.
A total of 352 companies traded shares in the stock exchange against 355 in the previous session, out of which shares of 116 closed up, shares of 226 companies closed down while shares of 10 companies remained unchanged. A total of 96 companies traded shares in the KSE-100 Index against the same number of companies in the previous session, out of which share prices of 20 companies closed up, 73 companies closed down and three remained unchanged.
The number of total trades decreased to 206,091 from 214,647 in the previous session, while the value traded decreased by Rs2.98 billion to Rs13.71 against Rs16.69 billion in the previous session.
In terms of rupee, SAPT remained the top gainer with an increase of Rs20 (+1.5 percent) per share, closing at Rs1,350. The runner-up remained SCL, the share price of which climbed up by Rs19.99 (+7.27 percent) to Rs294.99. SFL remained the top loser with a decrease of Rs118.12 (-7.5 percent) per share, closing at Rs1,456.88, followed by PAKT, the share price of which fell by Rs44.86 (-4.06 percent) to close at Rs1,060.1 per share.
The major sectors taking the index towards south were commercial banks (231 points), oil & gas exploration companies (225 points), cement (113 points), technology & communication (111 points), power generation & distribution (75 points), fertilizer (66 points), oil & gas marketing companies (49 points), refinery (39 points), pharmaceutical (32 points), and cables and electrical goods (21 points). Ten major companies depriving the index of points remained PPL (59 points), HBL (41 points), OGDC (36 points), TRG (29 points), UBL (28 points), HUBC (23 points), MCB (22 points), SYS (19 points), PSO (18 points), and POL (17 points).
The major sectors taking the index towards north remained miscellaneous (4 points) and synthetic & rayon (3 points). Ten major companies adding points to the index remained FFL, HMB and HMB (5 points each), SHEL (4 points), NATF and PABC (3 points each), and SBL, PCAL, IBFL and ILP (2 points each). – TLTP