Pakistan stocks remain bearish amid profit-taking

KARACHI: Profit-taking was witnessed at the Pakistan bourse on Friday, as investors opted to square their positions; wherein, the market anticipates aggressive interest rate hike on December 14, dealers said.

Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corporation said that the stocks closed lower on uncertainty over the monetary policy announcement next week and depreciating rupee.

“[The] surge in the National Savings’ rates, raise in [the] industrial power tariff, trade deficits and concerns over higher CPI [Consumer Price Index] inflation played a catalytic role in [the] bearish close.”

The Pakistan Stock Exchange KSE-100 shares Index shed 0.28 per cent, or 12,306 points to close at 43,395.78 points. The KSE-30 shares index shed 0.33 per cent, or 56.45 points, to close at 16,900.77 points.

As many as 324 scrips were active, of which 123 advanced, 183 declined and 18 remained unchanged. The ready market volumes stood at 179.17 million shares, compared with the turnover of 200.4 million shares in the last trading session.

The companies that reflected the highest gains included Nestle Pakistan, up Rs389.99 to close at Rs5,689.99/share; and Colgate Palmolive, up Rs40 to close at Rs2470/share.

The companies, which reflected the most losses included Sapphire Textile, down Rs74.40 to close at Rs917.6/share; and Gatron Industries, down Rs39.78 to close at Rs490.77/share.

An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said the bears took over due to volatility in the rupee value and the expectations of higher interest rates in the upcoming key policy announcement on December 14.

“[The] market opened negative but [the] Oil and Gas Development Company and [the] Pakistan Petroleum Limited managed to win the show, as investors’ participated in the stocks to avail big dividend on account of meaningful progress on [the] possibility of [the] resolution of gas circular debt in [the] coming days.”

Going forward, analysts recommend investors to avail any downside as an opportunity to buy banking and E&P sector stocks.

The highest volumes were witnessed in TRG Pakistan with a turnover of 14.62 million shares. The scrip gained Rs1.39 to close at Rs96.44/share; followed by Treet Corporation with a turnover of 14.24 million shares. It shed 28 paisas to close at Rs40.12/share. WorldCall Telecom remained the third with a turnover of 13.62 million shares. It shed 11 paisas to finish at Rs1.88/share.