KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) remained under pressure on Monday due to pre-budget uncertainty and profit-taking, as its benchmark KSE-100 Index failed to sustain a bullish start and shed over 300 points.

The benchmark index began the session positively, hitting an intra-day high of 76,209.97. However, the 76,000 level proved to be a strong selling point, as profit-taking kicked in during later hours, leading to heavy selling pressure after briefly crossing this level during the day.

Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corp said that pre-budget uncertainty and the terms of a new International Monetary Fund bailout package for tax reforms, hikes in power tariffs, and rupee depreciation spurred negative sentiments among investors.

“Weak rupee, falling foreign exchange reserves, and concerns over unsettled dues of Chinese independent power producers (IPPs) also played a catalytic role in the bearish close,” Mr Mehanti said.

The KSE-100 index reached a high of 76,210 points and a low of 75,495 points, finally closing at 75,575 points, marking a decrease of 303 points or 0.40 per cent.

The negative trend was influenced by the IT, banking, and fertiliser sectors, with companies such as SYS, FFC, EFERT, MEBL, and ENGRO collectively shedding 219 points. However, there were some positive contributions from TRG, MTL, and POL, which collectively added 96 points, brokerage house Topline Securities said in its post-market report.

Trading activity remained strong, with over 441 million shares changing hands, amounting to a total value of Rs18.6bn. FCCL led the volumes chart with over 32.8m shares traded.

Companies registering the biggest increases in their share prices were Nestle Pakistan (Rs154.64), Sazgar Engineering (Rs34.31), Pakistan Tobacco (Rs15.62), Rafhan Maize (Rs15.54), and Al-Abbas Sugar (Rs14.46).

Companies that recorded the biggest declines included Sapphire Fibres (Rs72.57), Hallmark Company (Rs35.23), Shahmurad Sugar (Rs32.54), Mari Petroleum (Rs19.67), and Bata Pakistan (Rs15.66).

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included Fauji Cement (32.83 million shares), K-Electric (31.65 million shares), PIA Holding (25.57 million shares), Dewan Motors (18.87 million shares), and Air Link Communication (16.06 million shares).

Of the 427 active scrips, 200 advanced, 178 declined, and 49 remained unchanged.

Foreign investors were net buyers as they picked shares worth $1.67m.

Published in Dawn, June 4th, 2024