Stocks on Monday went into a tailspin after the top court shot down a presidential reference seeking open ballot system in Senate polls, but bargains at the bottom offset some early losses, dealers said.
KSE-100 Shares Index shed 0.59 percent or 271.59 points to close at 45,593.43 points at the Pakistan Stocks Exchange (PSX). Volumes receded to 368.389 million shares compared to 479.98 million in the last trading session.
Adil Ghaffar, an analyst at First Equity Modarba, said stocks took a nosedive after Supreme Court verdict on Senate Elections. The losses aggravated further owing to margin calls on margin financing, margin trades and futures market; however, bargain-hunters absorbed the selling pressure in quality scripts, he added.
As many as 421 scrips were active, of which 111 advanced, 297 declined and 13 remained unchanged. Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp said stocks closed lower on institutional profit-taking post major earnings announcements at PSX.
Oil stocks were battered by weak crude oil markets and the government’s decision to keep petroleum prices unchanged, he added. Investor concerns over political noise, surging circular debt and likely higher CPI inflation for February weighed the index down, said Mehanti.
KSE-30 shares index shed 0.61 percent or 117.19 points to close at 19,055.89 points. Brokerage Arif Habib Limited in a report said Supreme Court’s decision on Senate Election was viewed as against the backdrop of the government’s plea and as a result concerned investors preferred to keep their liquidity intact rather than hold on to positions.
Topline Securities, another brokerage, noted the major negative contribution came from commercial banks as United Bank Limited, Habib Bank Limited, Bank Al Habib, MCB Bank, and National Bank knocked 107 points out of the index.
TRG Pakistan posted first-half earnings of Rs8.1/share, attributing it to Rs5.2 billion profit from share of profit from equity investees.
Engro Polymer and Chemicals notified that the commercial operation date has been achieved for the company’s new plant with a capacity of 100,000 MT after which the stock closed at Rs52.44, up 4.82 percent.
Danish Ladhani at JS Global Capital said selling pressure dragged the index down from an intraday high of 144 points in the initial hours to a low of 772 points by mid-day.
However, the market managed to recover some losses in the latter half of the session, he added. Moving forward, analysts expect the market to remain volatile and recommend investors to avail any downside as an opportunity to build positions in cement, refinery, and textile sectors.
Top two highest gainers of the day were Unilever Foods, up Rs450 to close at Rs14,000/share and Colgate Palmolive, up Rs83.98 to close at Rs2,750/share. Sapphire Textile, down Rs48.67 to close at Rs974/share, and Khyber Tobacco, down Rs37.67 to end at Rs464.68/share, suffered the highest losses.
Azgard Nine was the most traded stock with its 31.76 million shares changing hands. It gained 70 paisas to close at Rs31.43/share. TRG Pakistan was second on volume chart with 24.615 million traded shares.
The technology company lost 57 paisas to close at Rs141.49/share. Unity Foods with a turnover of 21.2 million shares was the third highest traded stock. It shed Rs1.68 to finish at Rs29.7.