Stocks tick down in trigger drought

Stocks on Wednesday crawled to another negative close in the absence of triggers as caution continued to hold trade on a tight leash, dealers said.

The Pakistan Stock Exchange's (PSX) benchmark KSE 100-share Index closed lower by 86.44 points or 0.18 percent to 47,900.70 points against 47,987.14 points recorded in the last session.

Muhammad Arbash, an analyst at Topline Securities, said the market was range-bound and after a slight positive opening ended lower.

Investors’ interest was seen in the refinery sector following the finance minister’s agreement to include a 10-year income tax holiday for the existing refineries in the finance bill, he said.

Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Shaukat Tarin on Tuesday tasked the concerned authority to streamline the formulation of the new Draft Oil Refining Policy, 2021. Tarin gave these directives during a meeting held to review progress on the draft.

Meanwhile, fertilisers and the exploration and production (E&P) sector were the major gainers. On the flip side, cements and the financial sector were the major laggards, Arbash said.

The highest index of the day remained at 48,134.95 points, while the lowest session level of the day was recorded at 47,865.11 points.

KSE-30 Share Index also lost 65.68 points or 0.34 percent to 19,259.38 points against 19,325.06 points.

However, turnover increased 9 million shares to 619.11 million against 610.74 million shares, trading value rose to Rs18.64 billion against Rs15.52 billion.

Market capital slightly moved up to 8.353 trillion from 8.351 trillion.

Out of 420 active names in the session, 192 advanced, 204 declined, while 24 remained unchanged.

Analyst Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp said stocks closed lower on uncertainty over FATF announcement this week on Pakistan Action Plan in the plenary meeting deciding on exclusion of Pakistan from grey list.

He said the oil sector outperformed surging global crude oil prices.

Investor concerns over rupee instability, impact of higher industrial power tariff, and surging trade deficit pushed the market in the red zone.

The highest increase was recorded in the shares of Island Textile, which rose Rs45 to Rs2,345/share, followed by Hinopak Motor that grew Rs34.57 to Rs495.56/share.

Major decline was noted in shares of Wyeth Pak Ltd, which fell Rs64.80 to Rs2,220/share, followed by Sanofi-Aventis that lost Rs46.98 to Rs943 per share.

Brokerage Arif Habib Ltd selling pressure was evident across the board, barring exploration and production and refinery sectors, which maintained positive momentum throughout the session.

Energy sector however saw selling in the closing hour bringing stock prices below LDCP, the brokerage said.

It said the index heavyweight OGDC posted high volume in anticipation of important decisions to be taken in the upcoming emergent board meeting.

Significant turnover was recorded in stocks of Silk Bank Ltd, WorldCall Telecom, TPL Corp Ltd, Byco Petroleum, Bank of Punjab, Azgard Nine, Ghani Global Glass, K-Electric Ltd, Al-Shaheer Corp, and Unity Foods Ltd.

Silk Bank Ltd remained the volume leader with 52.28 million shares with a drop of 16 paisas to Rs1.92 per share. It was followed by WorldCall Telecom with 41.58 million shares that closed unchanged at Rs3.86 per share.

Shares’ turnover in the future contracts rose to 283.26 million from 260.02 million shares traded in the previous session.