PSX closes lower over uncertain macroeconomics

KARACHI: The Pakistan stocks market closed lower on Wednesday as investors opted for profit-taking owing to worsening macroeconomics of the country, analysts said.

An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the market witnessed another mixed session. The market started in the red zone but quickly turned green and traded in a constrained range the whole trading day owing to uncertain economic conditions.

“The main board volumes dropped while the third-tier companies continued to dominate the volume board,” he added.

The Pakistan Stock Exchange KSE-100 shares Index shed 91.34 points, or 0.22 per cent, to close at 40,539.30 points. The KSE-30 shares Index shed 23.43 points, or 0.16 per cent, to close at 14,951.82 points.

As many as 325 scrips were active of which 128 advanced, 173 declined and 24 remained unchanged.

Muhammad Arbash at Topline Securities said that the equities closed slightly negative as the benchmark KSE-100 Index settled at 40,539 level.

“The market opened on a positive note over lower international commodities prices where the market made an intraday high of 265 points. However this positivity did not sustain as profit-taking was witnessed in the second half of the session where markets made an intraday low of 132 points,” he added.

The ready market volumes stood at 142.88 million shares, compared with the turnover of 201.05 million shares in the last trading session.

The companies which reflected the highest gains included Rafhan Maize up Rs499 to close at Rs9,599/share, and Premium Textile up Rs34.97 to close at Rs610/share.

The companies which reflected the most losses included Nestle Pakistan down Rs100 to close at Rs5,750/share, and J.D.W.Sugar down Rs14.66 to close at Rs405.33/share.

The highest volumes were witnessed in Dewan Motors with a turnover of 10.85 million shares. The scrip gained 29 paisas to close at Rs15.54/share, followed by Sui South Gas with a turnover of 10.73 million shares. It gained 72 paisas to close at Rs11.06/share. Al Shaheer(R) remained the third with a turnover of 9.35 million shares. It shed 33 paisas to close at Rs1.07/share.

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