KARACHI: Pakistani shares came under selling pressure in the first session of the week in sympathy with the global downturn, trimming the KSE 100 share index by 1.49 per cent on Monday.

Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corporation said stocks fell across the board on a global equity selloff amid fears over the US recession and concerns over Middle East tensions.

He said the weak rupee, slump in global crude oil prices and likely fallout exports to the US contributed to the bearish close.

Topline Securities Ltd said the market downturn was led by power, exploration & production (E&P), IT and banking sectors, with key contributors such as Hub Power, Habib Bank Ltd, Pakistan Oilfield, Systems Ltd, and Bank Al-Habib, cumulatively wiped out 484 points from the index

As a result, the benchmark index hit an intraday high of 78,330.10 points and a low of 76,943.24. However, the index continued its downturn and settled at 77,084.49 after losing another 1,141.50 points or 1.49pc on a day-on-day basis.

The overall trading volume rose 13.01pc to 501.19 million shares. The traded value also increased 2.72pc to Rs21.05bn on a day-on-day basis.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included Kohinoor Spinning (86.04m shares), Yousaf Weaving (32.79m shares), WorldCall Telecom (19.64m shares), Pace Pakistan (19.45m shares) and TPL Properties (16.76m shares).

The shares registering the most significant increases in their share prices in absolute terms were Ismail Industries (Rs66.98), Khyber Textile(Rs37.21), Leiner Pak Gelatine(Rs30.89), Hallmark Company (Rs27.05) and Bata Pakistan (Rs24.18).

The companies registering significant decreases in their share prices

in absolute terms were Unilever Foods(Rs149.50), Sapphire Fibre (Rs117.96), PIA Holding Ltd[B] (Rs85.46), Nestle Pakistan (Rs70.15) and Sapphire Textile (Rs69.47).

Foreign investors turned net sellers as they offloaded shares worth $0.33m.

Published in Dawn, August 6th, 2024