KARACHI: After staging an overnight rally, Pakistani stocks faltered on Friday as economic and political uncertainty took its toll on the benchmark index on profit-taking towards the final hours of the trading despite aggressive foreign buying.
Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corporation said stocks closed lower amid mounting political uncertainty.
“Uncertainty over IMF approval for the proposed closure of some independent power producers, tax collection shortfalls and cut in PSDP, the surge in federal government’s debt to over Rs85 trillion in FY24 and reports of a drop in textile exports by 3.1pc in July played a catalyst role in bearish close,” he added.
Topline Securities said the trading began on a positive note. However, some pressure was observed in the final hours as investors came in to book their gains.
Significant positive contributions to the index came from Unilever Pakistan Foods Ltd, Hoechst Pakistan Ltd, Pakistan Engineering Company Ltd, Ismail Industries Ltd and Nestle Pakistan, which contributed 534 points. Conversely, Sapphire Textile Mills Ltd, Exide Pakistan Ltd, Khyber Textile Mills Ltd, Sazgar Engineering Works Ltd and Reliance Cotton Spinning Mills Ltd lost value to weigh down on the index by 330 points.
As a result, the benchmark index hit an intraday high of 78,619.18 points and a low of 78,041.08. However, it settled at 78,045.31 after losing 60.67 points or 0.08pc on a day-on-day basis.
The overall trading volume slightly rose from 1.63pc to 600.71 million shares. The traded value also rose 4.81pc to Rs21.07bn on a day-on-day basis.
Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included Kohinoor Spinning Mills Ltd (109.49m shares), Yousaf Weaving (70.09m shares), Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd (21.23m shares), WorldCall Telecom (20.69m shares) and Air Link Communication (18.20m shares).
The shares registering the most significant increases in their share prices in absolute terms were Unilever Foods (Rs358.81), Hoeschst Pakistan (Rs60.29), Rafhan Maize (Rs47.50), Nestle Pakistan (Rs41.79) and Pakistan Services (Rs28.84).
The companies registering significant decreases in their share prices in absolute terms were Exide Pakistan (Rs83.58), Sazgar Engineering Works Ltd (Rs56.82), Ghandhara Industries Ltd (Rs38.53), Philip Morris (Rs32.91) and Ghandhara Automobiles Ltd (Rs31.57).
Foreign investors turned net buyers as they purchased shares worth $4.52m.
Published in Dawn, August 17th, 2024
