Stocks open rollover week in red

Stocks were off to a strong start on Monday led by select names, but were later pulled down by others as rollover week has kicked in amid economic jitters, traders said.

Pakistan Stock Exchange's (PSX) benchmark KSE-100 Shares Index shed 120.39 points or 0.25 percent to close at 47,672.68 points, testing a day high of 47,930.85 points and a low of 47,608.79 points.

Zafar Moti, former director PSX, said the market exuded optimism in the day as the opening was good because of PTI’s winning the Kashmir election. However, he said, traders thought a billion shares would be traded in this session as it had happened right after Ramazan/Eid-ul-Fitr holidays but the momentum fizzled with selling orders coming in the end.

“We thought a weakening dollar would benefit the market, but it didn’t,” Moti said. Trailing the benchmark, KSE-30 Shares Index also dropped 54.37 points or 0.28 percent to end at 19,106.87 points.

Haris S Khan, an analyst at Topline Securities, said the index opened the day in the positive territory to initially print an intra-day high of 47,930 (up 0.29 percent) but succumbed to selling pressure for the rest of the day and closed near its intra-day low of 47,606.

“The start of the futures rollover week, with an outstanding open position of Rs28.07 billion, coupled with concerns of a ballooning current account deficit kept the market gains in check,” Khan said.

PPL, MEBL, UBL, OGDC, and LUCK dragged the index down by a cumulative 126 points while MCB, ENGRO, and EFERT added 102 points, the Topline analyst said.

Traded shares, however, increased 136 million to 450.24 million against 314.16 million previously. Trading value rose to Rs13.55 billion against Rs11.09 billion. Market capital decreased to Rs8.347 trillion from Rs8.363 trillion. Out of 394 active names in the session, 187 moved higher, 187 lower, while 20 ended as they were at the opening.

Unilever Foods, up Rs400 to Rs16,400 per share, was the top gainer of the day, followed by Colgate Palmolive that strengthened Rs79.46 to Rs2,777.46 per share.

Wyeth Pak Ltd lost Rs37.60 to end at Rs2,091.50 per share being the biggest loser of the day, followed by Shield Corp that gave up Rs31.80 to close at Rs392.20 per share. Analyst Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp said stocks closed lower in the earnings season on investor concerns over the weak economic outlook and falling rupee.

Weak global crude prices, concerns for the economic impact of Covid pandemic lockdowns, and uncertainty over SBP (State Bank of Pakistan) policy announcement Tuesday amid surging inflation weighed on trade, Mehanti added.

Among day’s well-traded stocks were WorldCall Telecom, Telecard Limited, TPL Corp Ltd, Al-Shaheer Corp, Byco Petroleum, Nimir Resins, TRG Pak Ltd, Waves Singer, Pace (Pak) Ltd, and Silk Bank Ltd.

WorldCall Telecom led volume with 127.88 million shares, gaining 28 paisas to close Rs3.84 per share. It was followed by Telecard Limited that posted a trade of 45.07 million shares, while it grabbed 99 paisas to finish at Rs15.72 per share. Turnover in the future contracts increased to 314.61 million shares from 58.38 million shares in the previous session.