Pakistan bourse remains bearish: KSE-100 Index shed 673 points

KARACHI: The Pakistan equity market witnessed a bloodbath session on Wednesday, as it remained under selling pressure due to the rising trend in the global oil prices.

The rumours of a hike in the US interest rates and increased concerns over the bleak external account figures of the country kept the market under pressure throughout the trading session.

Moreover, restriction on businesses in the wake of rising in Covid cases added to the negativity. “Going forward, we expect the market to remain under pressure, therefore we suggest our investors adopt ‘the sell on strength’ strategy,” an analyst at Pearl Securities said.

The Pakistan Stock Exchange KSE-100 shares Index shed 1.48 per cent, or 673.98 points, to close at 44,833.43 points. The KSE-30 shares Index shed 1.53 per cent, or 274.00 points, to close at 17,651.77 points.

As many as 360 scrips were active, of which 56 advanced, 289 declined and 15 remained unchanged.

The ready market volumes stood at 236.93 million shares, compared with the turnover of 165.13 million shares in the last trading session.

“Profit taking has been witnessed across the board on higher international commodities prices as the market made an intraday low of 773 points,” an analyst at Topline Securities said.

“Initial pressure came from TRG, where the stocks closed at its lower limit. The cement and banks were also under hammer where LUCK, PSO, MCB and Engro were the major laggards in today’s trading session.”

The companies which reflected the highest gains, included Unilever Foods up Rs100 to close at Rs20,999/share, and Sapphire Textiles up Rs74 to close at Rs1,124/share.

The companies which reflected the most losses, included Bata (Pak)XD down Rs98 to close at Rs1,902/share, and Colgate Palm down Rs78.99 to close at Rs2,420/share.

The highest volumes were witnessed in WorldCall Telecom with a turnover of 27.32 million shares. The scrip shed 18 paisas to close at Rs2.16 /share, followed by TRG Pak Ltd with a turnover of 20.19 million shares, shedding Rs7.16 to close at Rs88.36/share. Telecard Limited remained the third with a turnover of 18.79 million shares, as it shed 88 paisas to finish at Rs17.23/share.