Stocks edged lower on Friday after late institutional profit-taking, in top-heavy equities, took a toll on first session gains amid weekend considerations in an otherwise fundamentally strong market, dealers said.
The market owing to technical factors closed with downward correction which has been termed as healthy as revival expected next week as the government has announced a broad based policy to ease lock down after sharp drop in COVID-19 cases.
Pakistan Stock Exchange’s (PSX) benchmark KSE-100 shares index lost 0.34 percent or 136.43 points to close at 40,029.69 points, while KSE-30 shed 0.73 percent or 127.52 points to end at 17,297.04 points level.
Analyst Ahsan Mehanti from Arif Habib Corporation said, "Stocks were battered by institutional profit-taking in overbought market amid concerns over dismal CPI inflation numbers, surge in NSC rates, and fall in global crude oil prices”.
Pressure remained in scrips across the board amid speculations on SBP policy stance amid higher inflation and weak rupee, he added.
“ADB (Asian Development Bank) forecast that home remittances might take a hit 27 percent in FY21 and concerns over FBR’s new oversight and penalties under the Finance Act dragged the index down,” Mehanti added. Of 402 active scrips, 197 moved up, 188 lowered, and 17 remained unchanged. Volumes stood at 728.768 million shares, as compared with 826.808 million shares in the previous session.
Tahir Abbas, director research at Arif Habib, said, “The market recorded session high of 40,465 points and first session ended on positive note, but late profit-taking in the second session weighed the market down”.
Muhammad Saeed Khalid, head of research at Shajar Capital Ltd, said “Despite another day of high volumes in WTL and TRG, index remained sluggish during the day as result season is coming to an end for June 2020”.
He said investors tried to book profits to make capital gains during the day in food, pharmaceutical, and power sectors.
“Investors participated in the automobile sector ahead of announcement of industry sales volume for the month of July 2020,” Khalid said.
Salman Ahmad, head of institutional sales at Aba Ali Habib Securities, said “The market closed on negative note owing to weekend, but fundamentally the market is strong because for the most of the session it remained in the bullish frame of mind”.
Given the easing of lockdown, reopening of the economy, improvement in exports, and revenue collection for the month of July, this correction was merely a technical one and market after some more triggers would go up, Ahmad added.
The top gainers were Bata Pakistan, gaining Rs108.67 to close at Rs1,557.67/share, and Colgate Palmolive, up Rs30.70 to finish at Rs2,350.70/share, while Unilever Foods, down Rs575 to close at Rs8,655/share, and Rafhan Maize, losing Rs250 to close at Rs8,050/share, were the main losers.
Friday’s volume leader was WorldCall Telecom with 144.414 million shares, and it gained Rs0.05 to end at Rs1.48/share, whereas Hascol Petrol was at the bottom of the turnover chart with 16.248 million shares, but secured Rs0.08 to end at Rs13.93/share.