Stocks flatlined on Thursday owing to late profit-taking amid rollover phenomenon with trade ballooning to yet another record of over two billion shares as Worldcall Telecom continued to shine for the second day, dealers said.
Pakistan Stock Exchange’s (PSX) KSE-100 Shares Index saw a downtick of 0.05 percent or 21.56 points to close at 46,790.75 points.
Traded volumes hit another unprecedented high of 2.217 billion shares compared to 1.56 billion shares in the last trading session.
Neelam Naz at JS Group said Wednesday’s momentum continued on Thursday amid MSCI rebalancing, with rampant activity, as the market shattered its record high volumes for the second consecutive day.
Moreover, the market stayed positive through most of the session, as local investor interest pushed it to a high of 47,206, Naz said adding that it eventually succumbed to pressure from the futures rollover effect.
As many as 432 scrips were active of which 173 advanced, 241 declined, and 18 remained unchanged.
An analyst at Pearl Securities said the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council had approved Rs361 billion for the projects of different sectors of the economy.
“Later on, selling pressure was witnessed which pared off the gains from the market as investors were concerned about the upcoming monetary policy announcement, which is scheduled tomorrow along with the higher expected inflation”.
Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp said stocks closed lower amid all-time high trades in the futures rollover week on weak global crude oil prices and foreign outflows after MSCI exclusions.
Uncertainty over central bank’s monetary policy announcement, pre-budget uncertainty and rupee instability contributed to the bearish close, Mehanti added.
KSE-30 Shares Index ended with a meager gain of 0.06 percent or 10.63 points to close at 19,137.48 points.
An analyst at Arif Habib Ltd said MSCI rebalancing created excitement in the market with heavy flows in Oil and Gas Development Company, Lucky Cement, and TRG Pakistan, which were the key subjects in the changes announced earlier during the month.
“Besides, Worldcall Telecom repeated the performance shown a day earlier being the volume leader consecutively and helping the market realise such a massive turnover,” the analyst said.
Dealers said since MSCI orders were mostly market-on-close, last half an hour caused the index to trade red with a decline of 137 points.
Banking sector kept the index green for most part of the session, with particular interest in Habib Bank and United Bank.
Topline Securities in its daily market review said in the last trading hour profit-taking hit the market due to MSCI rebalancing where hefty volumes were witnessed in LUCK, OGDC, TRG, PKGS, INDU, and NBP.
Colgate Palmolive, up Rs36.99 to close at Rs2,850/share, and Gatron Industries, up Rs33.52 to close at Rs480.56/share, closed the day with highest gains.
On the other hand, Unilever Foods, sheddng Rs983 to close at Rs15,616/share, and Pakistan Tobacco, having lost Rs71.86 to end at Rs1263.14/share, bagged the biggest losses.
Worldcall Telecom led volumes with a massive turnover of 950.27 million shares, followed by Hum Network with 172.57 million shares, and Silk Bank that saw a trade of 126.51 million shares.