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Stocks snap five-day rally on political noise
KARACHI: Pakistan equities observed a mixed day on Thursday as the market carried forward the fresh bullish momentum initially and made an intraday high of 184 points.
However, profit-taking kicked off at that level, bringing the benchmark index to the intraday low of 279 points, said Topline Securities.
Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corporation said the eventual drop in stocks was due to political noise and a hike in the power tariff. “Mid-session support remained on a strong rupee and falling Pakistan dollar-bond yields,” he said, adding that investors’ concerns over a weak earnings outlook also played a catalyst’s role in the bearish close.
The local currency posted another gain against the dollar on Thursday by closing at 218.88, up 1.38 per cent from a day ago. The rupee has appreciated 9.3pc in the last eight trading sessions, according to Tahir Abbas of Arif Habib Ltd.
JS Global recommended that investors should stay cautious at the current level and wait for any fresh buying.
As a result, the KSE-100 index snapped five days of rallies to settle at 42,243.33 points on Thursday, down 251.52 points or 0.59pc from a day ago. The trading volume decreased 24.5pc to 281.7 million shares while the traded value went down 41.1pc to $35.6m on a day-on-day basis.
Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included Unity Foods Ltd (19.67m shares), K-Electric Ltd (19.23m shares), WorldCall Telecom Ltd (18.37m shares), Cnergyico PK Ltd (16.95m shares) and Ghani Global Holdings Ltd (14.51m shares).
Sectors contributing negatively to the index performance included banking (81.1 points), fertiliser (47.3 points), technology (43.1 points), cement (20.9 points) and exploration and production (20.8 points).
Top advancers in percentage terms were First Elite Capital Modaraba (16.72pc), First Fidelity Leasing Modaraba (14.89pc), United Insurance Company Ltd (12.3pc), Pace Pakistan Ltd (11.96pc) and Saritow Spinning Mills Ltd (10.8pc).
Top decliners in percentage terms were Shaheen Insurance Company Ltd (10.61pc), Pak-Gulf Leasing Company Ltd (10.47pc), Aruj Industries Ltd (7.73pc), Ellcot Spinning Mills Ltd (7.5pc) and Baba Farid Sugar Mills (7.48pc). Foreign investors were net buyers as they purchased shares worth $0.55m.
Published in Dawn, August 12th, 2022
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