KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange witnessed another bearish session on Wednesday despite a positive open zone.

According to Arif Habib Ltd, continued pressure on the local currency hurt investors’ sentiments and pushed the KSE-100 index below the 41,000-pont level. “All eyes (are) now on the (US Federal Reserve) tonight and the quantum of (the interest) rate increase,” it added.

Analyst Ahsan Mehanti said there was midsession support to the index on speculations over the likely decision by the Financial Action Task Force on the country’s exit from the grey list.

However, dismal data on auto financing, falling value of the rupee against the dollar and concerns about the economic impact of flood-related losses played a role in the bearish close.

As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 40,965.58 points, down 255.33 points or 0.62 per cent from a day ago.

The trading volume increased 8.8pc to 170.4 million shares while the traded value went down 14.8pc to $20.1m on a day-on-day basis.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included K-Electric Ltd (40.32m shares), TPL Properties Ltd (11.92m shares), TRG Pakistan Ltd (11.38m shares), Cnergyico PK Ltd (9.69m shares) and WorldCall Telecom Ltd (7.39m shares).

Sectors that contributed to the index performance were exploration and production (-91.9 points), cement (-39.3 points), technology (-26.9 points), banking (-24.3 points) and oil and gas marketing (-22.2 points).

Companies registering the biggest increase in their share prices in absolute terms were Sapphire Fibres Ltd (Rs80.69), Sapphire Textile Mills Ltd (Rs76.53), Siemens Pakistan Engineering Ltd (Rs29.99), Colagte-Palmolive Pakistan Ltd (Rs15) and Shahtaj Textile Ltd (Rs5.25).

Shares that declined the most in rupee terms were Rafhan Maize Products Company Ltd (Rs100), Sitara Chemical Industries Ltd (Rs17.96), Al-Abbas Sugar Mills Ltd (Rs9.99), Pakistan Oilfields Ltd (Rs9.48) and Lucky Cement Ltd (Rs9.35).

Foreign investors remained net buyers as they purchased shares worth $0.75m.

Published in Dawn, September 22nd, 2022