KSE-100 Index shed 153 points on economic uncertainty

KARACHI: The Pakistan bourse started the day on a positive note where bears took over for the rest of day, thus, the market ended in a red zone.

An analyst at Pearl Securities said that the voting on the finance bill admitted strong opposition in both houses which kept the market under pressure.

“[The] international oil prices touched a high of $85/barrel coupled with the highest inflation rate of 7 per cent in the US also impacted the market. Lastly, an exponential rise in the Covid cases kept [the] investors at bay,” he added.

The Pakistan Stock Exchange KSE-100 shares Index shed 0.33 per cent, or 153.05 points, to close at 45,763.2 points. The KSE-30 shares Index shed 0.38 per cent, or 69.08 points, to close at 18,001.32 points.

As many as 363 scrips were active, of which 135 advanced, 196 declined and 22 remained unchanged.

The ready market volumes stood at 327.6 million shares, compared with the turnover of 514.38 million shares in the last trading session.

Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp said that the stocks closed bearish on the renewed concerns over Covid-19 pandemic in the global equities, and uncertainty over the approval of the Finance Supplementary Bill to clear the International Monetary Fund (IMF) review.

“Surging trade and current accounts deficit and uncertainty over [the] outcome of [the] IMF board review next week to release the EFF [Extended Fund Facility] tranche, played a catalyst role in bearish close,” he said.

Going forward, the analysts expect the market to remain positive and suggest investors to avail themselves of any dip as an opportunity.

The companies reflecting the highest gains included Unilever Foods up Rs175 to close at Rs20,324/share, and Sapphire Textile up Rs64.51 to close at Rs924.71/share.

The companies reflecting the most losses included Nestle Pakistan down Rs110.06 to close at Rs5,400/share, and Pakistan Tobacco down Rs47.12 to close at Rs1,106.33/share.

The highest volumes were witnessed in Cnergyco Pk with a turnover of 74.07 million shares. The scrip gained 43 paisas to close at Rs7.31/share, followed by Worldcall Telecom with a turnover of 47.81 million shares, as it closed at Rs2.53/share without any change. Hascol Petroleum remained the third with a turnover of 23.39 million shares, gaining 20 paisas to finish at Rs7.11/share.