Pakistan bourse continues bearish trend amid deteriorating economic indicators

KARACHI: The equity market continued with the bearish trend on Wednesday, as the absence of triggers, amid deteriorating economic indicators, kept the investors’ at bay, dealers said.

Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp said the stocks closed lower, amid global equity selloff and investors’ concerns over the economic uncertainty.

“Mid-session support remained in banking, cement and auto scrips ahead of [the] financial results announcements next week and easing concerns over [the] external account deficit with [the] Eurobond issue of $1 billion. However, [the] rupee instability and regional uncertainty played a catalytic role in the bearish close.”

The Pakistan Stock Exchange KSE-100 shares index shed 0.21 per cent, or 98.24 points, to close at 47,247.92 points. The KSE-30 shares index shed 0.17 per cent, or 31.79 points, to close at 18,973.05 points.

As many as 412 scrips were active, of which 172 advanced, 222 declined and 18 remained unchanged. The ready market volumes stood at 412.2 million shares, compared with the turnover of 541.3 million shares in the last trading session.

An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said the market faced continuity of selling pressure from institutional investors that saw a decline of 311 points and closed the session 98 points down.

“Cement, E&P, banks, refinery and oil and gas marketing sectors bore selling pressure, whereas technology and steel sectors contributed positively to the Index.”

Muhammad Mubashir at JS Global Capital said that the downtrend continued on the local bourse, as the benchmark index closed at 47,247 points.

“Profit-taking was seen across-the-board. Though the market sustained the psychological support level of 47,000 (rebounding from 47,034 points), it closed in the red zone with a loss of 98 points.”

An analyst at Pearl Securities said the KSE-100 Index witnessed a volatile session, where it lost 311 points at one point in time. “However, a late recovery led the benchmark index to end losing 98 points only. Due to the absence of any positive trigger, rising Covid cases and forced selling over [the] CGT [capital gains tax] adjustment resulted in lower market performance.”

The companies, which reflected the highest gains included Rafhan Maize, up Rs249 to close at Rs9,899/share; and Wyeth Pakistan, up Rs145.14 to close at Rs2,080.39/share.

The companies that reflected the most losses included Unilever Foods, down Rs245 to close at Rs15,555/share; and Pakistan Tobacco, down Rs98.34 to end at Rs1,321.65/share.

The highest volumes were witnessed in Fauji Foods with a turnover of 41.17 million shares. The scrip gained Rs1.21 to close at Rs19.55/share; followed by WorldCall Telecom with a turnover of 30.16 million shares, as it gained 5 paisas to close at Rs3.91/share. TPL Corp was the third with a turnover of 20.27 million shares. It gained Rs1.19 to finish at Rs17.10.

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