Stock market sheds 30 points in cautious, low-vol session

KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) edged lower for the third straight session on Tuesday, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index losing 30.05 points (-0.06 percent) to settle at 47,417.90 points.
The market opened on a positive note after a massive sell-off in the previous session and remained in the green territory for over three hours. The volumes remained low and market sentiment remained cautious due to political and economic uncertainty in the country as well as unabated rupee’s depreciation against the US dollar. The benchmark index started paring gains soon after touching the day’s high and this process continued till the closing.
The benchmark index traded in a range of 316.04 points showing an intraday high of 47,675.21 points and an intraday low of 47,359.17 points. Among other indices, the KSE All Share Index gained 31.46 points (+0.1 percent) to close at 31,531.04 points, while KMI All Share Islamic Index gained 61.96 points (+0.27 percent) to close at 23,018.98 points.
Total volumes traded for the KSE-100 Index decreased by 11.11 million shares to 73.23 million shares against 84.34 million shares traded a session earlier. Similarly, the overall market volumes decreased by 22.48 million shares to 185.75 million shares against 211.23 million shares traded a session earlier.
Among scrips, WTL topped the volumes with 25.87 million shares, followed by NPL (16.04 million) and OGDC (13.63 million). Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes included WTL, NPL, OGDC, DFML, and JSBL, which formed over 41 percent of total volumes.
A total of 313 companies traded shares in the stock exchange against 328 a session earlier, out of which shares of 141 closed up, shares of 149 closed down while shares of 23 companies remained unchanged. A total of 94 companies traded shares in the KSE-100 Index against 95 a session earlier, out of which share price of 31 companies closed up, 56 closed down and seven remained unchanged.
The number of total trades decreased by 93,679 as compared to the previous session, while the value traded decreased by Rs0.85 billion to Rs6.22 billion as compared to the previous session.
In terms of rupee, BHAT remained the top gainer and witnessed an increase of Rs49 (+5.16 percent) per share, closing at Rs999. The runner-up remained MARI, the share price of which climbed up by Rs23.93 (+1.49 percent) to Rs1,627.16. PAKT remained the top loser in terms of rupee and witnessed a decrease of Rs29 (-4.02 percent) per share, closing at Rs693, followed by EXIDE, the share price of which fell by Rs20.5 (-5.57 percent) to close at Rs347.68 per share.
The sectors taking the index towards south were power generation & distribution (26 points), fertilizer (25 points), cement (19 points), commercial banks (16 points) and investment banks/ investment companies/ securities companies (15 points). The major companies depriving the index of points remained BAHL (22 points), HUBC (21 points), DAWH (13 points), FFC (11 points), and PAKT (10 points).
The sectors taking the index towards north were oil & gas exploration companies (100 points), oil & gas marketing companies (16 points), engineering (8 points), and miscellaneous and textile composite (5 points each). The major companies adding points to the index remained OGDC (56 points), PPL (27 points), MARI (18 points), BAFL (13 points) and PSO (7 points). – TLTP