KARACHI: Despite massive foreign buying on Thursday, the stock market turned in a depressed performance amid the widening of the fiscal deficit and dismal auto sales data, forcing the benchmark KSE 100 index to close in the red for the third consecutive session.

Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corporation said the market remained under pressure amid a slump in global crude oil prices and steady government treasury bond yields, which dimmed rate cut hopes.

Automobile sales fell 38pc year-on-year in July-March, the fiscal deficit swelled to 7.4pc of GDP for FY24, and the weak rupee and SBP fines on blue-chip commercial banks for regulatory violations fuelled the bearish sentiments.

However, the chief concern for the economic stakeholders remains the uncertainty about the outcome of the ongoing talks with the International Monetary Fund for a new, larger and longer Extended Fund Facility.

As a result, the benchmark KSE 100 index scaled an intraday high of 70,645.30, gaining 311.98 points, and a low of 69,783.32, losing 550 points. However, it closed at 70,290.12 points after shedding another 43.20 points, or 0.06pc from the preceding session.

The overall trading volume slightly eased by 0.40pc to 440.31 million shares. However, the traded value surged by 51.93pc to Rs24.36bn on a day-on-day basis.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included Cnergyico PK Ltd (33.24m shares), K-Electric (29.87m shares), Pak Refinery (28.44m shares), PTCL (24.39m shares) and Worldcall Telecom (23.69m shares).

The shares registering the most significant decre­ases in their share prices in absolute terms were Nestle Pakistan (Rs52.50), Hoechst Pakistan (Rs50.00), Shahmurad Sugar Mills Ltd (Rs22.59), Lucky Cement (Rs12.38) and Mari Petroleum Company Ltd (Rs11.37).

The companies registering the major increases in their share prices in absolute terms were Rafhan Maize Products Company Ltd (Rs81.10), Hallmark Company Ltd (Rs52.00), Sazgar Engineering Works Ltd (Rs29.17), Premium Textile Mills Ltd (Rs23.00) and National Refinery Ltd (Rs16.57).

The market witnessed aggressive buying from foreign investors as their net buying of shares swelled to $23.3m.

Published in Dawn, April 19th, 2024