Stocks lose 242 points as talks with IMF delayed
KARACHI: Trading on the Pakistan Stock Exchange began on Monday on a negative note owing to a delay in talks between Pakistan and the International Monetary Fund.
Topline Securities said the rescheduling of the visit by the Saudi crown prince along with a rally on the global commodities front also played a role in the bearish close of the benchmark index. International oil prices traded up over three per cent, it added.
According to Arif Habib Ltd, the benchmark started off in the red zone and proceeded to trade in the same range due to a lack of investor participation. Mainboard activity remained flat as third-tier stocks continued to be volume leaders.
As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 42,850.83 points, down 242.12 points or 0.56pc from the preceding session.
The trading volume decreased 20.3pc to 185.5m shares while the traded value went down 21.1pc to $27.1m on a day-on-day basis.
Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included Hascol Petroleum Ltd (26.5m shares), Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd (12.8m shares), Lotte Chemical Pakistan Ltd (10.2m shares), TRG Pakistan Ltd (10.1m shares) and WorldCall Telecom Ltd (8.8m shares).
Sectors that contributed negatively to the index performance were exploration and production (86.5 points), cement (38.4 points), fertiliser (37.2 points), commercial banking (37 points) and miscellaneous (31.3 points).
Companies registering the biggest increase in their share prices in absolute terms were Gatron Industries Ltd (Rs28.01), Reliance Cotton Spinning Mills Ltd (Rs19), Pakistan Engineering Company Ltd (Rs18), TRG Pakistan Ltd (Rs10.19) and Sanofi-Aventis Pakistan Ltd (Rs10.01).
Shares that declined the most in rupee terms were Allawasaya Textile and Finishing Mills Ltd (Rs213.18), Pakistan Services Ltd (Rs55.75), Khyber Tobacco Company Ltd (Rs32.63), Pakistan Tobacco Company Ltd (Rs29.33) and Sapphire Textile Mills Ltd (Rs24).
Foreign investors remained net buyers as they purchased shares worth $0.6m.
Published in Dawn, November 15th, 2022