PSX hit as no clear triggers in sight

Stocks edged lower on Thursday as profit-booking remained the order of the day on regional and economic uncertainties with no clear triggers in sight, traders said.

The benchmark KSE-100 Share Index at the country’s apex bourse lost 106.62 points or 0.23 percent to close at 47,270.76 points hitting a day high of 47,556.54 points and a low of 47,176.95 points.

Analyst Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp. said Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed bearish on concerns for regional uncertainty and dismal economic outlook amid Covid rampage.

He said autos and banking stocks outperformed amid a surge in car sales by 104 percent year-on-year in July 2021 and robust financial results in the banking sector.

Weaker rupee and uncertainty over release of next IMF (International Monetary Fund) tranche pressed the index down, Mehanti added.

KSE-30 Shares Index, however, closed up by 3.35 points or 0.02 percent to close at 18,929.57 points.

Ready market volume shrank by 152 million shares to 230.17 million against 382.64 million shares on Wednesday.

Trading value reduced to Rs11.54 billion from Rs15.71 billion. Market capitalization eased to Rs8.273 trillion from Rs8.298 trillion.

Of 458 active shares in the session, 106 advanced, 329 retreated, while 23 ended unchanged.

Muhammad Arbash, an analyst at Topline Securities, said after a slightly positive opening, the market traded in a narrow range with an intraday low of 202 and a high of 178 points.

Major laggards were HUBC (-20 points), PSO (-17 points) and PPL (-15 Points), Arbash said adding, MEBL outperformed by rising 3.22 percent after it announced robust earnings, while TRG also added 40 points to the index.

Siemens Pakistan was the top gainer of the day, up Rs44.62 to close at Rs639.62 per share, followed by Blessed Textile, up Rs29.46 to Rs459.99 per share.

Sapphire Fiber took the highest hit by losing Rs70.12 to settle down at Rs864.87 per share, followed by Wyeth Pak Ltd that gave up Rs20 to end at Rs1,980 per share.

Brokerage Arif Habib Limited said the market was poised for a clear trigger in disregard to the announcement of infrastructure projects by the Prime Minister, which could have impacted stock prices of listed cement and steel sectors.

Profit-booking was observed across the board except for some blue-chip stocks, with nominal price gains, the brokerage said. “Ongoing earnings season has so far received a muted response from investors, especially with respect to earnings of Attock,” it reported.

Thursday’s well-traded stocks included TRG Pak Ltd, Ghani Global Holdings, WorldCall Telecom, TPL Properties, Byco Petroleum, Telecard Limited, Engro Polymer, Treet Corp, TPL Corp Ltd, and Hum Network.

TRG led volumes chart with 19.22 million shares. It gained Rs3.69 to close at Rs163.92 per share. It was followed by Ghani Global with 15.07 million shares. The scrip closed lower by one paisa to end at Rs3.42 per share.

Turnover in the futures contracts decreased to 65.10 million shares from 106.47 million in the previous session.