Late profit-taking took a heavy toll on stocks on Friday as investors were still not willing to stick their necks out amid nightmarish economic trends, traders said, despite the rupee's heroic clawback against the mighty dollar.
The benchmark KSE-100 Shares Index shed 307.74 points or 0.75 percent to close at 40,620.21 points.
Analyst Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp said stocks fell across the board on global equity selloff, a slump in world crude oil prices and surging government bond yields.
“Estimated $30 billon flood losses, low growth rate projections for FY23, dismal LSM output, and grim FDI number, down 26pc year-on-year, in August contributed to the prevailing pessimism,” he added.
Large-Scale Manufacturing output declined by 1.4 percent year-on-year during July 2022 with major downward contribution coming from non-metallic mineral products (down 33.9 percent year-on-year), pharmaceuticals (35.2 percent year-on-year), tobacco (75.5 percent year-on-year), food (1.2 percent year-on-year) and fertiliser (0.7 percent year-on-year).
The KSE-30 index also slipped by 142.59 points or 0.93 percent to 15,212.94 points.
Traded shares decreased by 25 million to 165.291 million from 190.091 million shares. The trading value rose to Rs6.873 billion from Rs6.322 billion. Market capital further narrowed to Rs6.689 trillion from Rs6.722 trillion. Out of 314 companies active in the session, 106 closed in the green, 176 in the red and 32 remained unchanged.
Topline Securities said the index opened on a positive note and hit an intraday high of 201 points but came under selling pressure soon after, owing to weak sentiment and plunging dollar bonds.
Pakistan’s dollar bonds fell by the most on record after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif appealed to rich nations for debt relief as the country grapples with the aftermath of catastrophic floods.
The 5.625 percent (2022) dollar bond maturing in December dropped nearly 11 cents to trade at 81.9 cents on the dollar, while its 7.375 percent (2031) dollar bond slumped about 7 cents to trade at 40.33 cents on the dollar.
MTL, DGKC, DAWH, EFERT, and JVDC supported the index as they cumulatively contributed 44 points, while MEBL, ENGRO, LUCK, HUBC, and BAHL knocked 149 points off the index.
The highest gains were posted by Rafhan Maize, which rose by Rs679 to Rs9,734/share, followed by Sapphire Fibre, which increased by Rs91.50 to Rs1,320 per share.
Sanofi-Aventis led the losses by shedding Rs92.17 to end at Rs1,136.83 per share, followed by Colgate Palm XDXB, down Rs22.98 to close at Rs2,122 per share.
Arif Habib Ltd, in its post-session analysis report, said it was a mixed session as bulls and bears fought for dominance the whole day.
“The market opened on a positive mote as rupee finally broke its losing streak against the US dollar. In the second session, late profit-taking claimed all the early gains,” the report said.
The major laggard sectors included banks (-112.1 points), cement (-38.4 points), power (-36.2 points), technology (-31.4 points), and fertiliser (-30.3 points).
Hascol Petrol was the most traded stock with 29.827 million, followed by TRG Pakistan Ltd that recorded a turnover of 23.899 million shares.
Other major traded stocks were K-Electric Ltd, Cnergyico PK, WorldCall Telecom, G3 Technologies XR, TPL Properties, Habib Bank, Oil and Gas Development Company, and Unity Foods Ltd. Turnover in the futures’ contracts increased to 68.338 million shares from 62.627 million shares.