Stocks end down as investors cut positions ahead of Eid holidays

Stocks ended flat in a dull trade on Monday as investors, both local and foreign, cut positions amid low volumes ahead of Eid holidays, dealers said.

They said the first public address of the Prime Minister Imran Khan failed to have a spillover effect on the market as investors remained “unenlightened on government’s future action plans on deteriorating economic situation”.

Pakistan Stock Exchange’s (PSX) benchmark KSE-100 shares index lost 0.05 percent or 21.52 points to close at 42,425.10 points, while its KSE-30 shares index rose 0.03 percent or 6.65 points to end at 20,933.33 points. As many as 363 scrips were astir today, of which 165 moved up, 186 retreated, and 12 remained unchanged. The ready market volumes stood at 147.552 billion shares as compared with the turnover of 194.194 billion shares in the previous session.

Analyst Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corporation said the market closed flat amid cautious activity ahead of holidays on investor concerns for economic uncertainty. “Dismal earnings in oil sector, global equity sell off, high current account deficit for July 2018 and falling global crude oil prices kept investors on sidelines,” Mehanti said.

The market opened on positive note and made high of 42,701 level, taking direction from the first speech of PM Khan. But selling later erupted from some of the investors. Moreover, sentiments were also dampened on media reports that caretaker government has suggested several harsh hitting measures to revive economy like rupee-dollar parity to adjust to Rs135, interest should be in double digit and Rs600 billion require that could be met through imposing new taxes.

“Some shares belonging to cement and steel companies came in the limelight after the PM Khan assured that the government would be construct and work on Basha Dam project to meet the ever rising demand of water issue in the country”, said a broker.

He said amongst cement shares Lucky Cement lead the chart, gaining Rs 7/share while in steel group International Steel recorded an increase of Rs 1.30/shares. The highest gainers were Rafhan Maize, up Rs346.17 to close at Rs7850.00/share, and Pakistan Tobacco up Rs96.00 to finish at Rs2244.00/share.

Companies that booked highest losses were Unilever Foods, down Rs325.00 to close at Rs7550.00/share, and Phillip Morris Pakistan down Rs157.50 to close at Rs2992.50/share.

Unity Foods Limited recorded the highest volumes with a turnover of 6.531 million shares. The scrip gained Rs1.42 to close at Rs41.72/share was followed by Maple Leaf with a turnover of 6.007 million shares, whereas the scrip gained Rs0.16 to close at Rs58.44/share. The lowest volumes were witnessed in Bank of Punjab, recording a turnover of 10.998 million shares, the bank’s scrip lost Rs0.16 to end at Rs11.78/share.