Gloomy conditions prevail on stock market
KARACHI: The inordinate delay in the signing of a staff-level agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) resulted in another day of losses for equities on Tuesday.
The index of representative shares opened on the higher side but slipped into the negative territory after struggling to maintain its momentum, said Arif Habib Ltd. Share prices bounced within a short range afterwards as poor engagement from investors led to reduced trading activity.
Rising concerns over the political situation also pushed investors to the sidelines, said JS Global. It encouraged investors to take advantage of any downside and buy stocks in the banking and exploration and production sectors.
As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 39,804.71 points, down 31.19 points or 0.08 per cent from the preceding session.
The overall trading volume decreased 43.7pc to 59.7 million shares. The traded value went down 25.7pc to $4.8m on a day-on-day basis.
Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included K-Electric Ltd
(9.2m shares), WorldCall Telecom Ltd (7.1m shares), Maple Leaf Cement Factory Ltd (3.1m shares), Interloop Ltd (2.6m shares) and Pakistan Petroleum Ltd (2m shares).
Sectors contributing negatively to the index performance were commercial banking (24.2 points),
fertiliser (16.3 points), power generation and distribution (9 points), pharmaceutical (8.5 points) and oil marketing (3.9 points).
Companies registering the biggest increases in their share prices in absolute terms were Unilever Pakistan Foods Ltd (Rs400), Nestle Pakistan Ltd (Rs76.42), Khyber Textile Mills Ltd (Rs39.48), Pakistan Tobacco Company Ltd (Rs24.40) and JS Global Capital Ltd (Rs23.48).
Companies that recorded the biggest declines in their share prices in absolute terms were Bata Pakistan
Ltd (Rs104.99), Sapphire Fibres Ltd (Rs42.23), Murree Brewery Company Ltd (Rs14.85), Fazal Cloth Mills Ltd (Rs11.157) and Colgate-Palmolive Pakistan Ltd (Rs8.92).
Foreign investors were net sellers as they offloaded shares worth $0.46m.
Published in Dawn, April 12th, 2023