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KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange closed on a negative note on Thursday after a day of lacklustre trading owing to the depreciation in the rupee’s value against the dollar coupled with the ambiguity over the upcoming election of the Punjab chief minister, said Topline Securities.
The local currency shed 0.83 per cent of its value on a day-on-day basis to close at 226.81 in the interbank market. The central bank has attributed the unending depreciation to the market-determined exchange rate system as well as a worldwide bullish trend in the value of the greenback against a basket of currencies.
Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corporation attributed the bearish close on the stock market to the “new” International Monetary Fund conditions ahead of the release of tranche along with the uncertainty over the funding from friendly countries.
As a result, the KSE-100 index for the first time since November 2020 settled below 40,000 at 39,831.75 points, down 627.95 points or 1.55pc from a day ago.
The trading volume increased 11.5pc to 158 million shares while the traded value went down 4.8pc to $18.9m on a day-on-day basis.
Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included WorldCall Telecom Ltd (16m shares), TPL Properties Ltd (11.87m shares), Unity Foods Ltd (10.04m shares), Cnergyico PK Ltd (7.61m shares) and Pakistan Refinery Ltd (5.67m shares).
Sectors negatively contributing to the index performance included fertiliser (100 points), banking (91.2 points), exploration and production (78.8 points), cement (60.9 points) and chemical (45.4 points).
Shares registering the highest gains in percentage terms were First Credit and Investment Bank Ltd (14.1pc), United Insurance Company Ltd (8.79pc), Allawasaya Textile and Finishing Mills Ltd (7.5pc), Maqbool Textile Mills Ltd (7.49pc) and Bata Pakistan Ltd (7.17pc).
Stocks that recorded the biggest losses in percentage terms were Unicap Modaraba Ltd (22.67pc), Jubilee Spinning and Weaving Mills Ltd (20.31pc), Power Cement (Pref) Ltd (15.15pc), Cordoba Logistics and Ventures Ltd-R (14.8pc) and Dawood Equities Ltd (11.08pc).
Foreign investors were net buyers as they purchased shares worth $1.45m.
Published in Dawn, July 22nd, 2022
