KARACHI: The stock market snapped its three-day winning streak on Friday as jittery investors indulged in profit-taking towards the end of the session mainly due to growing concerns about the economy amid the contraction of large-scale manufacturing, dragging the benchmark KSE 100 index below 113,000.
Listing the key factors that halted the market bullish drive, Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corporation told Dawn that the investor fear over the government tax reforms ahead of the IMF review next month amid revenue shortfalls and a rise in bond yields depressed market sentiment.
He added that the market turned bearish amid dismal data on LSM shrinking 3.73pc year-on-year in December and 1.87pc in the first half and concerns about a surge in repatriation of profits on foreign investments.
He also noted that weak global crude oil prices, uncertainty over the outcome of the IMF review for the release of the next tranche, and the weak rupee remained key worries for equity investors.
Topline Securities Ltd noted that the KSE 100 index declined to close at 112,801, down 938.22 or 0.82pc day-on-day.
The top positive contribution to the index came from Lucky Cement, Kohinoor Textile Mills, Standard Chartered Bank (Pak) Ltd, TRG and Tariq Glass Industries Limited, as they cumulatively contributed 162 points.
Conversely, Cherat Cement Company Limited, MCB Bank, Abbott Laboratories (Pakistan) Limited, Habib Bank, and Pakistan Petroleum, lost value to weigh down on the index by 300 points.
Ali Najib, Head of Sales at Insight Securities, said the index initially carried forward overnight positive momentum as investors chose to further strengthen their positions in cyclical sectors, especially in cement stocks, which supported the market to make an intraday gain of 705 points at 114,444 in the first session. However, selling headwinds in the second session wiped out early gains on profit-taking, pushing the index in the red zone.
The trading volume plunged 42.16pc to 545 million shares while the traded value decreased 34.96pc to Rs21.52bn day-on-day.
Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included Pak International Bulk Terminal (l35.41m shares), K-Electric (24.73m shares), Ghani Global Glass (19.83m shares), Pak Elektron (19.00m shares) and Fauji Cement (18.57m shares).
The shares registering the most significant increases in their share prices in absolute terms were Nestle Pakistan (Rs48.71), Supernet (Rs43.75), Hoechst Pakistan (Rs31.02), Lucky Cement (Rs26.60) and Ghandhara Automobiles Ltd (Rs17.20).
The companies registering significant decreases in their share prices in absolute terms were Unilever Foods (Rs215.00), Rafhan Maize (Rs147.67), Abbott Laboratories (Rs80.86), Pakistan Engineering Company Ltd (Rs40.02) and Bata Pakistan (Rs27.80).
Published in Dawn, February 22nd, 2025
