KARACHI: The shares market witnessed another bearish session on Tuesday as the status quo in the monetary policy announced a day ago did not receive much appreciation from stock investors.
Topline Securities said trading began on a positive note, but profit-taking in cement, technology, fertiliser, chemical and glass sectors contributed negatively to the KSE-100 index.
Arif Habib Ltd said investors’ participation remained sideways as third-tier stocks continued their dominance of the volume board.
According to analyst Ahsan Mehanti, dismal data on remittances and auto sales in May along with the State Bank of Pakistan’s statement about no plan for bilateral debt restructuring played the role of a catalyst in the bearish close.
As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 41,538.72 points, down 244.21 points or 0.58 per cent from the preceding session.
The overall trading volume decreased 19.5pc to 144.2 million shares. The traded value went down 26.3pc to $14.3m on a day-on-day basis.
Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included Hascol Petroleum Ltd (14.3m shares), TPL Properties Ltd (13.5m shares), WorldCall Telecom Ltd (12.9m shares), the Bank of Punjab Ltd (8.1m shares) and Media Times Ltd (6.7m shares).
Sectors contributing negatively to the index performance were cement (73.4 points), technology and communication (52 points), fertiliser (42.4 points), chemical (33.3 points) and food and personal care products (23.9 points).
Companies registering the biggest increases in their share prices in absolute terms were Pakistan Services Ltd (Rs33.29), Philip Morris Pakistan Ltd (Rs31.99), Khyber Textile Mills Ltd (Rs30), Sanofi-Aventis Pakistan Ltd (Rs24.43) and Mirpurkhas Sugar Mills Ltd (Rs11.41).
Companies that recorded the biggest declines in their share prices in absolute terms were Unilever Pakistan Foods Ltd (Rs889), Rafhan Maize Products Company Ltd (Rs554), Allawasaya Textile and Finishing Mills Ltd (Rs191.75), Colgate-Palmolive Pakistan Ltd (Rs90.84) and Reliance Cotton Spinning Mills Ltd (Rs42.49).
Foreign investors were net sellers as they offloaded shares worth $0.38m.
Published in Dawn, June 14th, 2023
