KARACHI: Low participation from investors led to a lacklustre session on the Pakistan Stock Exchange on Wednesday.

Analysts said stock prices came under pressure because of a press report about a $4.5 billion external financing shortfall. Arif Habib Ltd said the benchmark index showed an inability to sustain the 46,000-point level.

The key event during the trading session was the result announcement by Pakistan Petroleum, which declared an annual profit of Rs97.9 billion, up 83pc from a year ago, in addition to a dividend per share of Rs2.50. While the company’s earnings hit an all-time high, the pay-out remained below expectations, said the brokerage.

“We recommend investors should avail any downside as an opportunity to buy cement, technology and exploration and production sectors,” said JS Global.

As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 45,889.58 points, down 20.89 points or 0.05 per cent from the preceding session.

The overall trading volume increased 10.4pc to 129.3 million shares. The traded value decreased 11.4pc to Rs3.6 billion on a day-on-day basis.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included Treet Corporation Ltd (17.8m shares), Pakistan Petroleum Ltd (6.1m shares), WorldCall Telecom Ltd (4.8m shares), Unity Foods Ltd (4.7m shares) and Nishat Chunian Power Ltd (3.8m shares).

Companies registering the biggest increases in their share prices in absolute terms were Colgate-Palmolive Pakistan Ltd (Rs92.76), Reliance Cotton Spinning Mills Ltd (Rs25), Philip Morris Pakistan Ltd (Rs14.75), Pakistan Hotels Developers Ltd (Rs12.36) and Atlas Honda Ltd (Rs11.39).

Companies that recorded the biggest declines in their share prices in absolute terms were Bhanero Textile Mills Ltd (Rs74.25), Mehmood Textile Mills Ltd (Rs36.10), Pakistan Tobacco Company Ltd (Rs11.53), Lucky Core Industries Ltd (Rs11.45) and Mari Petroleum Company Ltd (Rs8.68).

Foreign investors were net buyers as they purchased shares worth $0.27m.

Published in Dawn, September 21st, 2023