Bears remain active at Pakistan bourse; KSE-100 Index shed 2.1 points

KARACHI: The Pakistan equity market witnessed a lacklustre session on Wednesday in the absence of any positive trigger, while investors’ interest was low, as participants were waiting for the Pakistan Investment Bonds (PIBs) auction result, dealers said.

“Additionally, the government delayed the mini-budget announcement, which dragged down the sentiments of the bourse,” an analyst at Pearl Securities said.

The Pakistan Stock Exchange KSE-100 shares Index shed 2.1 points to close at 44,174.97 points. The KSE-30 shares index gained 2.09 points to close at 17,389.36 points.

As many as 339 scrips were active, of which 159 advanced, 165 declined and 15 remained unchanged. The ready market volumes stood at 151.78 million shares, compared with the turnover of 223.08 million shares in the last trading session.

An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said the market continued to remain choppy ahead of the mini-budget. “The government had planned to take the Cabinet’s nod to the Supplementary Finance Bill, 2021 to slap highly inflationary Rs360 billion in indirect taxes. Profit-taking was witnessed in the first trading hour, then [the] market battled between the bulls and bears throughout the day.”

The main board volumes remained on the dull note, whereas activity continued to remain sideways, as the market witnessed hefty volumes in the third tier stocks.

Muhammad Mubashir at JS Global Capital, said: “Going forward, we expect range-bound activity to continue and any clarity on the mini-budget is likely to drive the market from here onwards.”

The companies, which reflected the highest gains included Nestle Pakistan, up Rs196 to close at Rs5585/share; and Sanofi Aventis, up Rs45.81 to close at Rs656.64/share.

The companies that reflected the most losses included Sapphire Fiber, down Rs70.49 to close at Rs869.41/share; and Mehmood Textile, down Rs53.25 to close at Rs656.75/share.

The highest volumes were witnessed in Ghani Global with a turnover of 14.21 million shares. The scrip shed 50 paisas to close at Rs24.59/share; followed by Unity Foods with a turnover of 9.1 million shares. It gained 72 paisas to close at Rs27.15/share. TRG Pakistan remained the third with a turnover of 8.49 million shares. It gained Rs1.29 to finish at Rs117.53/share.