Pakistan bourse closes lower over Moody’s ‘Caa1’ rating

• The Pakistan Stock Exchange KSE-100 shares Index shed 56.16 points, or 0.13 percent to close at 42,155.48 points.
• Moody’s downgraded the long-term deposit ratings of 5 Pakistani banks to ‘Caa1’ from ‘B3’.
• The WB and State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) have also cut down growth to two percent for the fiscal year 2023.

KARACHI: The Pakistan equity market closed lower on Tuesday, owing to the investors’ concern after Moody’s downgraded the long-term deposit ratings of five Pakistani banks, analysts said.

Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp said that the stocks witnessed bearish activity over investors’ concerns after Moody’s downgraded Pakistan banks’ rating and maintained a negative outlook of sovereign credit rating.

“The mid-session support remained on the strong rupee and likely receipts this month from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and World Bank (WB) for floods relief operations,” he added.

The WB and State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) have also cut down growth to two percent for the fiscal year 2023, Mehandi said.

The Pakistan Stock Exchange KSE-100 shares Index shed 56.16 points, or 0.13 percent to close at 42,155.48 points. The KSE-30 shares Index shed 266.56 points, or 1.68 percent, to close at 15,622.91 points.

An analyst at Pearl Securities said that the equities opened in the green zone. However, it closed in the red zone after observing a volatile session.

“The market welcomed the status quo in interest rates. While Moody’s downgraded the long-term deposit ratings of 5 Pakistani banks to ‘Caa1’ from ‘B3’. The finance minister left for the US to meet World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) teams for a discussion on the IMF program and aid funds for flood relief,” he added.

“Going forward, the market will perform according to the upcoming result season in the first quarter of the fiscal year 2023. Hence, we recommend our investors adopt the “Buy on Dip” strategy in the upcoming sessions,” he added.
As many as 341 scrips were active of which 139 advanced, 176 declined and 26 remained unchanged.

The ready market volumes stood at 304.83 million shares, compared with the turnover of 240.19 million shares in the last trading session.

The companies which reflected the highest gains included Sapphire Textile up Rs59 to close at Rs1,064/share, and Reliance Cotton up Rs27 to close at Rs558/share.

The companies which reflected the most losses included Nestle Pakistan down Rs70 to close at Rs5,780/share, and Bata (Pak) down Rs63.56 to close at Rs2,234.88/share.

The highest volumes were witnessed in WorldCall Telecom with a turnover of 39.05 million shares. The scrip shed 7 paisas to close at Rs1.56/share, followed by Cnergyico PK with a turnover of 34.12 million shares. It gained 18 paisas to close at Rs5.15/share. Pak Elektron remained the third with a turnover of 32.40 million shares. It gained 76 paisas to close at Rs18.22/share.

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