Pakistan stocks down 519.41 points amid profit-taking

KARACHI: The Pakistan stocks witnessed a profit-taking session on the first day of the week on account of concerns over the upcoming monetary policy announcement scheduled on Tuesday, dealers said.

“During the day, investors’ interest remained low, owing to the upcoming mini-budget, which led the index to close below the psychological barrier of 43,000 points, an analyst at Pearl Securities said.

“Cumulatively, the technology, banking, and E&P sector eroded 330 points from the index.”

The Pakistan Stock Exchange KSE-100 shares Index shed 1.2 per cent or 519.41 points to close at 42,876.37 points. The KSE-30 shares Index shed 1.31 per cent, or 221.32, points to close at 16,679.45 points.

As many as 331 scrips were active, of which only 65 advanced, 250 declined and 16 remained unchanged. The ready market volumes stood at 150.38 million shares, compared with the turnover of 179.17 million shares in the last trading session.

Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corporation said that the stocks closed lower on uncertainty over the central bank’s policy tightening on Tuesday and the weak rupee.

“[The] surge in [the] National Savings’ rates, higher government bond yields, likely announcements of mini-budget for resumption of the IMF programme and uncertain Pak-US relations played a catalytic role in the bearish close.”

An analyst at Topline Securities said the market opened on a slightly positive note; however, the index came under pressure and traded negatively throughout the day. “Investors are waiting for the monetary policy statement, which is due tomorrow.”

Going forward, analysts expect the market to take direction after the monetary policy announcement, and suggest investors to adopt the sell on strength strategy in the ongoing week.

The companies that reflected the highest gains included Gatron Industries, up Rs34.22 to close at Rs524.99/share; and Pakistan Tobacco, up Rs30 to close at Rs1,100/share.

The companies, which reflected the most losses included Nestle Pakistan, down Rs333.74 to close at Rs5,356.25/share; and Bata Pakistan, down Rs93.38 to close at Rs1,746.62/share.

The highest volumes were witnessed in WorldCall Telecom with a turnover of 18.33 million shares. The scrip shed 18 paisas to close at Rs1.7/share; followed by Byco Petroleum with a turnover of 7.3 million shares. It shed three paisas to close at Rs5.65/share. Fatima Fertilizer remained the third with a turnover of 7 million shares. It shed 24 paisas to finish at Rs34.76/share.