Stocks extend losses as economic angst weighs

Equity rout entered third day on Thursday, with cement leading the losses, amid angst over rupee and trade deficit, traders said.

Pakistan Stock Exchange’s (PSX) benchmark KSE-100 Shares Index gave up 272.63 points or 0.57 percent worth of gains to settle at 47,363.27 points, testing an intraday high of 47,757.86 points and a low of 47,260.36 points.

Zafar Moti, former director PSX, said weakening rupee and other bleak economic indicators including current account deficit dampened the sentiment, while Covid was still a cause of concern for investors.

“Due to a decline in rupee value, the benefit of oil price decline is not being transferred to the consumers at large,” he said adding, “We don’t get relief here.”

Topline Securities in a note said after a slightly positive opening the market traded sideways with profit-taking taking no break in the second half where index touched a low of 373 points.

The cement sector was the major downer as LUCK took away 75 points from the index with DGKC and CHCC following its suit.

Toeing the broader trend the KSE-30 Shares Index also dropped 136.23 points or 0.71 percent to 18,953.90 points.

Traded volume shrank 24 million shares to 360.81 million, while trading value rose slightly to Rs11.74 billion from Rs11.51 billion.

Market capital slid to Rs8.28 trillion from Rs8.34 trillion.

Out of 483 actives in the session, 118 improved, 350 retreated, while 15 ended as they had opened.

Analyst Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp said bearish trend continued on concerns over economic uncertainty amid weak rupee and high inflation.

Rs2.8 trillion circular debt crises, IMF conditions over further taxes and power tariff, rising current account deficit and possible PSX downgrade to MSCI frontier market kept the stocks bearish in futures rollover week, Mehanti said.

Unilever Foods led the gainers chart by grabbing Rs440 to end at Rs18,000/share, followed by Pakistan Services that gained Rs70 to end at Rs1,075/share.

Nestle Pakistan XD was the loser of the day as it fell Rs50 to Rs5,650/share, followed by Rafhan Maize that lost Rs50 to settle down at Rs9,950 per share.

Brokerage Arif Habib Limited in a report said rollover week had its toll on the market, besides disappointment from financial results and slippage of rupee against dollar also weighed. Selling pressure was evident in cement, steel, power sectors, the brokerage said.

Positive contributors included SYS (79 points), PSEL (35 points), MCB (13 points), BAHL (8 points), and FABL (8 points).

Among major laggards were LUCK (-75 points), TRG (-26 points), DGKC (-18 points), HBL (-16 points) and PSO (-14 points).

Stocks that recorded significant turnover included Hascol Petrol, Ghani Global Holdings, Kohinoor Spinning, TPL Properties, WorldCall Telecom, Hum Network, TPL Corp Ltd, Image Pakistan, Azgard Nine, and Yousuf Weaving.

Hascol Petrol was the volume leader with 28.76 million shares. It gained 49 paisas to end at Rs7.92/share. The second highest traded stock was Ghani Global with 25.10 million shares. It lost Rs3.38 to close at Rs42.34/share.

Turnover in the future contracts decreased to 263.17 million shares from 308.19 million in the previous session.