KSE-100 Index edges down on profit-taking

KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) opened in a green zone where investors’ interest was boosted as the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) kept the interest rate unchanged in Monday’s announcement.

“Late profit taking was witnessed at the bourse as international markets turned red on the speculation that the US Federal Reserve may raise interest rates in the upcoming meeting,” an analyst at Pearl Securities said.

The Pakistan Stock Exchange KSE-100 shares Index shed 0.08 per cent, or 36.14 points, to close at 44,887.77 points. The KSE-30 shares Index shed 0.17 per cent, or 30.27 points, to close at 17,696.27 points.

As many as 333 scrips were active of which 148 advanced, 161 declined and 24 remained unchanged.

The ready market volumes stood at 207.04 million shares, compared with the turnover of 160.2 million shares in the last trading session.

Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp said that stocks closed lower amid thin trade on investors’ concerns over economic uncertainty and the SBP lowered growth at 4.5 per cent for fiscal year 2022.

“Leveraged stocks in the textile and cement sector outperformed the SBP decision over status quo in the key policy rate. Political noise, and uncertainty over the outcome of the international Monetary Fund (IMF) policy board review on January 28, 2022 played a catalyst role in the negative close,” he added.

Going forward, analysts expect the market to perform well in the absence of any negative trigger.

The companies which reflected the highest gains, included Lucky Cement up Rs19.71 to close at Rs684.93/share, and Indus Motor Company up Rs12.82 to close at Rs1,308.13/share.

The companies which reflected the most losses, included Colgate Palmolive down Rs126 to close at Rs2,294.01/share, and Sapphire Fiber down Rs70.2 to close at Rs865.8/share.

The highest volumes were witnessed in Waves Singer with a turnover of 20.02 million shares. The scrip gained 52 paisas to close at Rs15.5/share, followed by TRG Pakistan with a turnover of 11.11 million shares, shedding Rs3.75 to close at Rs77.14/share. Treet Corp remained the third with a turnover of 9.3 million shares. It shed 31 paisas to finish at Rs38.91/share.