PSX down 157 points over political, economic uncertainty

• The Pakistan Stock Exchange KSE-100 shares Index shed 157.20 points, or 0.37 per cent to close at 42,190.03 points.
• Analysts recommend the investors adopt the “Sell on Strength” strategy in the upcoming sessions.
• The highest volumes were witnessed in Hascol Petrol with a turnover of 35.21 million shares.

KARACHI: The Pakistan equity market closed in the red zone on Tuesday after remaining volatile throughout the session on the back of political uncertainty besides weak economic indicators, analysts said.

An analyst at Pearl Securities said that negative sentiment prevailed due to political uncertainty that might arise in the wake of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) long march in the next month.

“The market participants went on a spree of sell-offs rather than rolling over their future positions. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has asked Pakistan to impose roughly Rs600 billion in additional taxes,” he added.

The Pakistan Stock Exchange KSE-100 shares Index shed 157.20 points, or 0.37 per cent to close at 42,190.03 points. The KSE-30 shares Index shed 65.38 points, or 0.42 per cent to close at 15,537.26 points.

Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp said that the stocks witnessed bearish activity on economic and political uncertainty in the country.

“Political noise, weak industrial earnings outlook on surging power tariff and reports over a default linked slump in the government dollar bond prices played a catalyst role in the bearish close,” he added.

Going forward, the analysts expect the market to remain under pressure. Hence, recommend the investors adopt the “Sell on Strength” strategy in the upcoming sessions.

As many as 334 scrips were active of which 96 advanced, 208 declined and 30 remained unchanged.

The ready market volumes stood at 195.40 million shares, compared with the turnover of 226.74 million shares in the last trading session.

The companies which reflected the highest gains included Sapphire Fiber up Rs52.48 to close at Rs1,084.40/share, and Khyber Tobacco up Rs22.79 to close at Rs326.69/share.

The companies which reflected the most losses included Bhanero Textile down Rs32.44 to close at Rs982.06/share, and Colgate Palm down Rs24.50 to close at Rs2,038/share.

The highest volumes were witnessed in Hascol Petrol with a turnover of 35.21 million shares. The scrip gained 12 paisas to close at Rs6.81/share, followed by WorldCall Telecom with a turnover of 13 million shares. It shed 4 paisas to close at Rs1.55/share. G3 TechClassB remained the third with a turnover of 11.05 million shares. It shed 55 paisas to close at Rs0.31/share.

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