Stocks close flat on profit-taking

Stocks closed flat on Monday as fertilisers-led spike was leveled by late-session profit-taking in a lacklustre trade, dealers said. An analyst at Elixir Securities said equities closed little changed in volatile trading and after wiping all intra-day gains on profit-taking. 

“The market opened higher with fertilisers leading the surge as investors tracked global urea prices that posted biggest weekly gain in almost four years. Later on profit-taking completely wiped all the morning gains.” The KSE-100 shares shed 0.02 percent or 6.55 points to close at 42,743.65 points. KSE-30 shares index shed 0.06 percent or 12.34 points to close at 21,893.38 points. As many as 382 scrips were active of which 138 advanced, 223 declined and 21 remained unchanged.

The ready market volumes stood at 126.23 million shares compared to a turnover of 132.057 million shares a day earlier. Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp said stocks closed flat amid institutional support in selected oil, banking and fertiliser scrips on strong earnings outlook.

“Political noise, uncertainty over the outcome of NAB (National Accountability Bureau) references against former prime minister and finance minister, pressure due to futures contracts rollover, and weak global crude prices contributed to the negative close of the equities,” Mehanti said.

Fauji Fertilizers (FFC), which jumped by 5.0 percent being the biggest beneficiary, as it has an unused exports quota compared to Engro Fertilizers (EFERT), up 3.9 percent, added the most to the gains, churning out the highest volumes since the day of Pakistan's entry in MSCI EM Index.

The wider market, built on a surge in fertilisers, was led by notable index names, trading in green and pushing the KSE-100 index to test 43K resistance. Later, the market was caught in a tight bear hug and profit-taking completely squeezed out all the gains made in the morning. As a result National Bank (NBP) went down 5.0 percent to hit a lower price limit, denting the benchmark index the most after Supreme Court dismissed the bank's appeal against Lahore High Court's decision in Pension Liability case. Analysts see consolidation in near-term with domestic political noise and ongoing holy month of Muharram keeping most of the investors on the sidelines. “Moving forward, we expect the volatility to continue unless the ongoing political situation becomes somewhat clear,” Maaz Mulla at JS Global Capital said.

Companies reflecting the highest gains include Sapphire Textile, up Rs94.48 to close at Rs2037/share, and Island Textile, up Rs42.01 to close at Rs984.99/share. Sapphire Fiber, down Rs54.80 to close at Rs1041.35/share, and Khyber Tobacco down Rs30 to end at Rs740/share were the top losers of Monday’s session.

The highest volumes were witnessed in Aisha Steel Mill with a turnover of 7.82 million shares. The scrip gained 12 paisas to close at Rs19.29/share. K-Electric Limited was second with a turnover of 7.27 million shares as it gained 04 paisas to close at Rs6.31/share. Fauji Fertilizer stood third with a turnover of 6.365 million shares by gaining Rs3.9 to finish at Rs82.4/share.