Stock market discards 368 points amid profit-taking

KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) turned to profit-taking after a positive start on Monday, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index losing 368.26 points (-0.57 percent) to close at 64,269.37 points.
The market opened on a positive note and gained over 500 points during the first 15 minutes of trading. However, bears managed to take over the market, eroding all the gains and turning the indices towards red territory. The bears dominated till the end of the session as there was no let-up in selling pressure.
According to market experts, political noise could be the reason for the bearish session, as the bulls were not able to make the most of the completion of the first review by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Executive Board of the $3 billion Stand-by Arrangement (SBA) last week. Moreover, talks of a rate cut in the upcoming Monetary Policy Committee meeting of the State Bank of Pakistan couldn’t boost sentiment in the market.
The benchmark index traded in a range of 1,042.92 points, showing an intraday high of 65,173.87 points and an intraday low of 64,130.95 points. Among other indices, the KSE All Share Index shed 296.64 points (-0.68 percent) to close at 43,443.49 points. Similarly, the KMI All Share Islamic Index shed 220.40 points (-0.69 percent) to close at 31,840.89 points.
Total volumes traded for the KSE-100 Index decreased by 167.48 million shares to 235.43 million shares against 402.91 million traded in the previous session. Similarly, the overall market volumes decreased by 261.3 million shares to 382.01 million shares against 643.31 million shares traded a session earlier.
Among scrips, KEL topped the volumes with 55.03 million shares, followed by PIBTL (37.65 million) and WTL (25 million). Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes included KEL, PIBTL, WTL, FFL, and OGDC, which formed over 41 percent of total volumes.
A total of 360 companies traded shares in the stock exchange against 363 in the previous session, out of which shares of 95 closed up, shares of 247 companies closed down while shares of 18 companies remained unchanged. A total of 96 companies traded shares in the KSE-100 Index against 95 companies in the previous session, out of which share prices of 22 companies closed up, 72 companies closed down and one remained unchanged.
The number of total trades decreased to 167,266 from 211,667 recorded in the previous session, while the value traded decreased by Rs5.94 billion to Rs14.08 against Rs20.02 billion in the previous session.
In terms of rupee, PMPK remained the top gainer with an increase of Rs44.34 (+7.5 percent) per share, closing at Rs635.59. The runner-up remained PHDL, the share price of which climbed up by Rs33.94 (+7.15 percent) to Rs508.94. NESTLE remained the top loser with a decrease of Rs200 (-2.44 percent) per share, closing at Rs8,000, followed by RMPL, the share price of which fell by Rs150 (-1.57 percent) to close at Rs9,400 per share.
The major sectors taking the index towards south were cement (87 points), commercial banks (51 points), fertilizer (48 points), technology & communication (44 points), food and personal care products (28 points), engineering (24 points), automobile assemblers (19 points), refinery (17 points), and tobacco (15 points).- TLTP