KARACHI: The stock market was on a losing streak for the third consecutive day as investors indulged in profit-taking on pre-budget uncertainty.

Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corporation said the market extended overnight losses on pre-budget uncertainty and reports of falling fertiliser and cement sales.

Urea sales plunged 49 per cent month-on-month to 328,000 tonnes in April, hitting a three-year low. DAP sales also declined 12pc to 92,000 tonnes month-on-month.

Topline Securities Ltd said the index’s decline was mainly propelled by Dawood Hercules, Engro Fertilisers, MCB Bank, Lucky Cement, and United Bank Ltd, collectively causing a drop of 210 points. On the other hand, Service Industries Ltd, Fauji Fertiliser Company, and K-Electric balanced it out by adding 97 points.

As a result, the benchmark index hit an intraday high of 73,079.18 and a low of 72,358.19. However, the KSE-100 index closed at 72,601.82 points after losing 159.38 points from the preceding session.

The overall trading volume surged by 56.04pc to 970.32 million shares. The traded value, however, fell 5.83pc to Rs23.51bn on a day-on-day basis.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included WorldCall Telecom Ltd (407.88m shares), K-Electric Ltd (68.03m shares), Hum TV Network Ltd (56.10m shares), Pak Elektron Ltd (29.96m shares) and Secure Logistics Group Ltd (22.72m shares).

The shares registering the most significant increases in their share prices in absolute terms were Service Industries Ltd (Rs49.60), Highnoon Laboratories Ltd (Rs26.83), Thal Ltd (Rs11.28), Archroma Pakistan Ltd (Rs11.18) and ZIL Ltd (Rs11.00).

The companies registering the major decreases in their share prices in absolute terms were Unilever Pakistan Foods Ltd (Rs552.77), Hallmark Company Ltd (Rs68.00), Nestle Pakistan Ltd (Rs30.00), Hoechst Pakistan Ltd (Rs26.40) and Hinopak Motors Ltd (Rs22.81).

Foreign investors rema­ined net buyers as they bought shares worth $0.44m.

Published in Dawn, May 9th, 2024