KARACHI: Share prices moved in both directions on Monday as most analysts termed the federal budget announced last Friday a “neutral to negative” event for the Pakistan Stock Exchange.
Topline Securities said the stock market initiated the week on a mixed note where the benchmark index of representative shares made an intraday high of 125 points or 0.3 per cent.
However, banks, exploration and production firms and fertiliser companies saw some selling pressure given that there was little to celebrate for them in the 2023-24 budget. This led the KSE-100 index to drop to an intraday low of 189 points or 0.45pc subsequently.
Arif Habib Ltd said investor activity remained sluggish for most of the day while third-tier scrips led the volume board.
As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 41,782.93 points, down 121.28 points or 0.29 per cent from the preceding session.
The overall trading volume increased 8.7pc to 179.1 million shares. The traded value went up 6.3pc to $19.3m on a day-on-day basis.
Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included Hascol Petroleum Ltd (16.3m shares), TPL Properties Ltd (13m shares), Pakistan Refinery Ltd (10.7m shares), the Bank of Punjab Ltd (8.5m shares) and Waves Corporation Ltd (8m shares).
Sectors contributing the most to the index performance were commercial banking (-94.8 points), exploration and production (-76.3 points), investment banking (-25.6 points), textile composite (-24.5 points) and fertiliser (-23.6 points).
Companies registering the biggest increases in their share prices in absolute terms were Unilever Pakistan Foods Ltd (Rs1,067.32), Nestle Pakistan Ltd (Rs440), Rafhan Maize Products Company Ltd (Rs345), Colgate-Palmolive Pakistan Ltd (Rs142.71) and Bata Pakistan Ltd (Rs50.36).
Companies that recorded the biggest declines in their share prices in absolute terms were Bhanero Textile Mills Ltd (Rs95.08), Sapphire Fibres Ltd (Rs87.66), Sanofi-Aventis Pakistan Ltd (Rs55.75), Khyber Tobacco Company Ltd (Rs20.92) and Siemens Pakistan Engineering Ltd (Rs20).
Foreign investors were net buyers as they purchased shares worth $0.41m.
Published in Dawn, June 13th, 2023
