Bears dominate Pakistan stocks amid political noise, FTSE rebalancing

KARACHI: The Pakistan bourse witnessed a bloodbath session on Friday due to the political unrest and rupee depreciation against the dollar.

The market witnessed dull activity in the first session while across the board selling was observed in the second session due to the last working day of the week, an analyst at Arif Habib Limited said.

Moreover, the foreign activity was witnessed due to the Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) rebalancing, he added.

The Pakistan Stock Exchange KSE-100 shares Index shed 1.77 per cent, or 777.26 points, to close at 43,029.97 points. The KSE-30 shares Index shed 2.33 per cent, or 391.41 points, to close at 16,434.06 points.

“Pressure was observed in the market in the last trading session of the week, which can largely be attributed to the increase in the political noise where few ruling party members have expressed that they may vote against the Prime Minister in the upcoming no-confidence vote,” an analyst at Topline Securities said.

Further, the FTSE rebalance added further pressure in the last trading hours, he added.

As many as 335 scrips were active of which 64 advanced, 256 declined and 15 remained unchanged.

The ready market volumes stood at 180.43 million shares, compared with the turnover of 148.50 million shares in the last trading session.

The companies which reflected the highest gains included Unilever Foods up Rs375.03 to close at Rs21,875.03/share, and Sapphire Fibe up Rs58.74 to close at Rs858.99/share.

The companies that reflected the most losses included Bata (Pak) down Rs143 to close at Rs2,125/share, and Mehmood Tex down Rs58.91 to close at Rs771.08/share.

The highest volumes were witnessed in WorldCall Telecom with a turnover of 13.48 million shares. The scrip shed 7 paisas to close at Rs1.50/share, followed by Ghani Glo Hol with a turnover of 10.05 million shares. It shed 92 paisas to close at Rs14.14/share. K-Electric remained the third with a turnover of 8.82 million shares. It shed 10 paisas to finish at Rs2.92/share.