Stocks closed down on Monday as investors stayed on the sidelines waiting to see the outcome of a rally, due later in the week, that already caused political tensions in the country,
Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif will lead a mass rally on Wednesday and is likely to highlight a host of grievances including his ouster by the Supreme Court in Panama paper case. “Decline in stock prices is plausibly a result of jitters felt from the political impact of recently ousted PM's announced rally,” Maaz Mulla at JS Global said.
The Pakistan Stock Exchange benchmark KSE-100 shares shed 0.88 percent or 411.71 points to close at 46,465.66 points. KSE-30 shares index shed 1.02 percent or 248.39 points to close at 24,123.92 points. As many as 394 scrips were active of which 100 advanced, 281 declined and 13 remained unchanged. The ready market volumes stood at 241.027 million shares as compared with the turnover of 346.236 million shares a day earlier.
Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp said stock closed lower after corporate results fell short of expectations in fertilisers and banking sector. “Weak banking spreads, concerns over surging circular debt in energy sector, falling global crude prices, foreign outflows and rising political noise played a catalytic role in bearish close at PSX.”
An analyst at Elixir Securities said equities extended losses with benchmark index closing below 46,500 level on relatively dull activity. “Anxiety over foreigners selling and on domestic politics, as PAT (Pakistan Awami Tareek) chairman Tahir Qadri will land in Lahore city tomorrow and holds a rally to demand justice for deaths of his supporters, resulted in lower volumes in wider market with only 240 million shares exchanging hands on KSE All Index, down 30 percent from last week's average.”
All major sectors including oils, financials and cements closed lower on limited institutional interest while much of the day's volumes were focused in mid and small cap names where retail favorites dominated volumes chart.
Engro Polymer (EPCL) down 2.08 percent declared its financial results for 1H2017, an EPS of Rs1.58 was announced that stood below investors' expectations for the quarter. Going forward, analysts see selective interest to prevail and increased volatility with participants tracking both institutional flows and news flow on domestic politics to gauge market direction.
Companies reflecting highest gains include Sanofi Aventis up Rs97.92 to close at Rs2056.34/share and Sapphire Textile up Rs84.92 to close at Rs1974.90/share. Companies reflecting most losses include Wyeth Pakistan down Rs84.77 to close at Rs2336.90/share and Bata Pakistan down Rs50 to end at Rs3150/share.
Highest volumes were witnessed in Bank of Punjab with a turnover of 17.026 million shares. The scrip shed 58 paisas to close at Rs11.31/share. K-Electric Limited was second with a turnover of 14.819 million shares. It gained 05 paisas to close at Rs7.30/share. Summit bank was third with a turnover of 14.813 million shares. It shed Rs1.0 paisas to finish at Rs4.36/share.