Stocks fall over one percent on dismal economic data

Stocks relinquished gains made over the last couple of sessions as the index fell more than one percent on Friday triggered by election anxiety and poor economic indicators, dealers said.

Shumaila Badar, head of research at Ismail Iqbal Securities said investors chose to book profits after the hefty gains in the last couple of sessions. Foreign exchange reserves falling below $16 billion, and large foreign portfolio outflow of $7.1 million seen on Thursday, also rattled investors.

“We expect jitters to dominate sentiments as the election-day draws closer. If the electoral process proceeds smoothly, then we can expect a rally in the latter part of next week,” Shumaila said. “Sustainability of post-election rally will depend on how fast the new government takes action to resolve balance of payments problems.”

Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) benchmark KSE-100 shares index shed 1.37 percent or 573.84 points to close at 41,221.75 points. KSE-30 shares index shed 1.45 percent or 300.77 points to end at 20,398.35 points.

As many as 350 scrips were active today, of which 82 moved up, 244 retreated, and 24 remained unchanged. The ready market volumes stood at 222.675 billion shares compared to a turnover of 337.087 billion shares in the previous session.

Analyst Ahsan Mehanti from Arif Habib Corporation said, “Panic selling (was) witnessed at PSX across the board amid $18 billion dismal data on external account for July-June 2018 and rupee plunge to record low against dollar on prevailing economic uncertainty.”

Ongoing political noise, lower global crude oil prices, foreign selling and concerns for falling foreign exchange reserves played a catalytic role in the bearish close, the analyst added.

The highest gainers were Colgate Palmolive, up Rs123.01 to close at Rs3,288.00/share, and Unilever Foods, up Rs99.99 to finish at Rs8,099.99/share.

Companies that booked highest losses were Rafhan Maize, down Rs370.50 to close at Rs7,562.00/share, and Wyeth Pakistan Limited, down Rs69.55 to close at Rs1,401.38/share.

Pakistan Refinery recorded the highest volumes with a turnover of 8.897 million shares.

The scrip gained Rs1.34 to close at Rs43.69/share. It was followed by Byco Petroleum with a turnover of 5.015 million shares, whereas the scrip gained Rs0.18 to close at Rs12.48/share.

The lowest volumes were witnessed in K-Electric Limited, recording a turnover of 14.101 million shares. Its scrip lost Rs0.19 to end at Rs5.44/share.