PSX closes higher after range-bound session

KARACHI: The Pakistan equity market managed to close in the green zone on Monday after remaining volatile owing to a lack of positive triggers and low volumes, analysts said.

An analyst at Pearl Securities said that the market remained directionless as political unrest is at its peak with Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s calls for protests amid the appointment of a new army chief.

“Additionally, the markets are in doubt over Pakistan’s ability to pay maturing loans in fiscal year 2022 due to historic low foreign exchange reserves. This has put the rupee under great pressure as it closed at Rs223.66/dollar,” he added.

An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the market witnessed a range-bound session where the KSE-100 Index opened in a positive note but lack of investors’ confidence dragged the index to trade in a narrow range.

“The main board volumes remained dry although decent volumes were observed in the third tier stocks,” he added.

The Pakistan Stock Exchange KSE-100 shares Index gained 30.95 points, or 0.07 per cent to close at 42,761.19 points. The KSE-30 shares Index gained 26.31 points, or 0.17 per cent to close at 15,727.42 points.

As many as 334 scrips were active of which 150 advanced, 156 declined and 28 remained unchanged.

Commodity expert Ahsan Mehanti said that the stocks closed higher amid thin trade on upbeat data of the current account deficit narrowing to $567 million in October 2022.

“Mid-session pressure remained on concerns for record surge in Pakistan’s 5-year credit default swap (CDS) to 92.53 per cent depicting likely default,” he added.

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

The ready market volumes stood at 132.94 million shares, compared with the turnover of 189.28 million shares in the last trading session.

The companies which reflected the highest gains included Allawasaya Textile up Rs168.73 to close at Rs2,418.50/share, and Mehmood Textile up Rs55 to close at Rs808/share.

The companies which reflected the most losses included Unilever Foods down Rs250 to close at Rs25,750/share, and Sanofi-Aventis down Rs44.99 to close at Rs1,050/share.

The highest volumes were witnessed in WorldCall Telecom with a turnover of 14.12 million shares. The scrip shed 4 paisas to close at Rs1.41/share, followed by TRG Pakistan with a turnover of 10.23 million shares. It gained Rs5.02 to close at Rs146.57/share. Unity Foods remained the third with a turnover of 8.73 million shares. It gained 41 paisas to close at Rs17.13/share.