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Tuesday March 19, 2024

Stocks flat as multi-session surge succumbs to profit-taking

By Our Correspondent
November 13, 2019

Stocks were flat on Tuesday as profit-taking interrupted a multi-session headway in an oversold market that saw an accumulation of over 3,000 points without a break recently, dealers said.

Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) benchmark KSE-100 shares index lost 0.10 percent or 37.54 points to close at 36,765.56 points level. KSE-30 shares index followed suit with a low of 0.38 percent or 64.71 points to end at 17,117.17 points level.

Topline Securities in its daily market note said, “After eight consecutive positive sessions, the benchmark index turned red depicting a slight decline”. As per news reports, International Monetary Fund (IMF) has softened its stance on sovereign guarantees and has allowed government to obtain Rs250 billion loan and make payment to the electricity producers on account of circular debt which led the power companies to close positively in range of 3-8 percent, the brokerage added.

Ahsan Mehanti from Arif Habib Corporations said, “Stocks closed lower amid concerns over political and economic uncertainty”. “Oil and banking stocks outperformed on higher global crude oil prices and strong financials for banking sector.”

Post quarterly earnings' announcements' consolidation at PSX, concerns over expected subdued economic growth in FY20 and uncertainty over central bank policy rate announcements weighed on stocks, Mehanti added. As many as 381 scrips were traded today and of that total 195 rose, 173 retreated, and 13 remained inert.

Investor participation in terms of volume was recorded at 292.060 million shares, up by 3.2 percent compared to 282.944 million in the previous session.

Salman Ahmad, head of institutional sales at Aba Ali Habib Securities, said, “The selling was evident in the key scrips after successive increase in stock market for the last nine sessions climbing by more than 3000 points”. “Fundamentally the sentiments are strong because of good volumes being registered on daily basis.”

The IMF nod turned out to be positive for the market and the correction was quite small, hinting that soon the market would take an upward move following some positive developments on the political front, Ahmad added. A leading trader said that the market opened on a positive nod and climbed to 37,171 points which boosted the sentiment but with resistance surfacing on 37,000 points, selling clipped the gains.

Worries arose because social media was abuzz with rumors that Maulana Fazal Rehman’s plan ‘B’ involves likely sit-ins in Karachi at 13 different points, which sent disturbing signals to market players, the trader said. Cement sector was under the lime light following the government’s decision to expedite the release of funds for the public development on priority basis.

Arif Habib Limited in their market analysis stated, “Cement sector that garnered the most trading volume…, traded green for the most part of the session, but saw selling activity in Lucky Cement”.

On the whole, banking, fertiliser and chemical sector largely performed negative and was further contributed by oil and gas exploration and production and oil marketing companies, which saw selling pressure by the end of the session, the brokerage added. The highest gainers were Unilever Foods, up Rs110 close at Rs6,717/share, and Bata Pakistan, up Rs71.21 to finish at Rs1856.59/share. Top losers included Colgate Palmolive, down Rs30 to close at Rs1,950/share, and Sapphire Fiber, down Rs27.50 to close at Rs572.50/share.

Unity Foods trading volume was the highest at 16.150 million shares as the scrip gained Rs0.17 to end at Rs11.18/share. Siddiqsons Tin posted the lowest turnover of 8.083 million shares, gaining Rs0.49 to end at Rs13.26/share.