Stocks end lower in volatile trade

Stocks fell on Thursday after daylong jerky trade as eleventh-hour profit-taking, spurred by nerves over not so strong earnings outlook, turned the gains into losses, traders said.

Pakistan Stock Exchange's (PSX) benchmark KSE-100 Shares Index fell 251.52 points or 0.59 percent to 42,243.33 points after testing an intraday high of 42,678.27 and a low of 42,214.63 points.

Arif Habib Ltd, a brokerage, in its post-session report, said the index opened with a positive gap but turned choppy soon after and late profit-booking took a toll on the early gains.

“Volumes remained decent in the mainboard although hefty volumes were witnessed in the 3rd tier stocks.”

Sectors contributing to the performance included banks (-81.1 points), fertiliser (-47.3 points), technology (-43.1 points), cement (-20.9 points), and energy (-20.8 points).

Tracking the main market, the KSE-30 also lost 108.32 points or 0.67 percent to 15,971.67 points.

Traded shares dropped 92 million to 281.734 million from 373.184 million shares, while value fell to Rs7.795 billion from Rs13.231 billion. Market capital narrowed to Rs7.083 trillion from Rs7.089 trillion.

Topline Securities said equities had a mixed day during which, initially, the market saw some fresh bullish momentum and made an intraday high at 42,679 (+184 points; up 0.43 percent).

“However, profit taking kicked in at the aforesaid level and brought the benchmark index to a day low of 42,216 points before eventually settling down at 42,243 points for the day,” the brokerage said.

HBL, SYS, EFERT, TRG, and ENGRO lost 135 points, cumulatively. On the flip side, NBP, MTL and LUCK witnessed some buying interest as they added 37 points collectively.

The highest increase was recorded in shares of Unilever Foods, which rose by Rs500 to Rs25,000 per share, followed by Nestle Pakistan, which increased by Rs45 to Rs6,100 per share.

Major decline was noted in the shares of Gatron Industries, which fell Rs26.40 to Rs361.10 per share, followed by Indus Motor Co, which shed Rs16.18 to close at Rs1,054.02 per share.

Analyst Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp said stocks fell sharply lower on political noise and a hike in power tariff.

However, mid-session support came from a strong rupee and easing Pakistan dollar bonds’ yields, while concerns over weak earnings outlook weighed on the trade, he added.

Unity Foods Ltd was the volume leader with 19.675 million shares. It gained 32 paisas to end at Rs20.43 per share. It was followed by K-Electric Ltd that posted 19.236 million shares. The power utility closed higher by 4 paisas to Rs3.10 per share.

Other major volume-makers were WorldCall Telecom, Cnergyico PK, Ghani Global Holdings, Pace (Pakistan) Ltd., Pakistan Refinery, TPL Properties, Fauji Foods Ltd, and Balochistan Glass.

Turnover in the futures’ contracts plunged to 79.339 million shares from 111.624 million shares.