Equities witness selling pressure as investors remain cautious ahead of budget

KARACHI: The equity market remained under selling pressure on Wednesday, as investors wait for the consensus between the government and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) over the upcoming budget and avoid taking fresh positions, dealers said.

Maaz Mulla at JS Global Capital said that another volatile session was witnessed at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) where the KSE-100 index closed with a loss of 370 points.

“The WorldCall remained the volume leader on the back of material information released yesterday that they have entered into a business collaboration agreement with TUFA Telecommunication, targeting fibre to the home service rollout across Pakistan.”
The KSE-100 shares index sheds 0.77 per cent, or 370.36 points, to close at 47,777.62 points. The KSE-30 shares index sheds 0.99 per cent, or 193.11 points, to close at 19,381.81 points.

Also read: Rupee recovers 9 paisas against dollar

As many as 416 scrips were active, of which 130 advanced, 274 declined and 12 remained unchanged.

The ready market volumes stood at 1.35 billion shares, compared with the turnover of 1.04 billion shares in the last trading session.
Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp said that the stocks battered on pre-budget uncertainty, rising trade deficit, and concerns over the World Bank’s revised thin growth forecast of 1.3 per cent for FY21.

“Weak global equities and investors’ concern over the falling rupee played a catalytic role in the bearish close.”

An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said the market remained under pressure. Kot Addu Power Company (Kapco) proved to be a disappointment for investors, where a dividend declaration of Rs5/share post-release of the circular debt-related funds failed to motivate investors.

“Resultantly, the stock came down from an intraday high to trade below the previous day’s closing price for the most part of the session. Selling pressure was otherwise observed in exploration and production (E&P), steel, cement, oil, and gas marketing companies, refinery, and technology sectors.

Selling pressure was witnessed in banks and the cement sector where Cherat Cement (CHCC) went down 2.7 per cent Kohat Cement (KOHC) was down 1.3 per cent, Pioneer Cement (PIOC) declined 1.1 per cent, Habib Bank Limited (HBL) was down 1 per cent, Allied Bank Limited (ABL) declined 0.9 percent and Bank Alhabib (BAHL) down 1 per cent closed in the negative zone.

The auto sector closed on a positive note where Ghandhara Nissan (GHNL) went up 2.9 per cent, Hino Motors (HINO) up 3.1 per cent and Indus Motor (INDU) went up 4.7 per cent.

“Looking forward, we expect the market to continue its momentum with minor profit-taking until the announcement of the budget,” an analyst at Pearl Securities said.

The companies that reflected the highest gains included Island Textile, up Rs154.12 to close at Rs2,209.12/share; and Indus Motor Company, up Rs60.34 to close at Rs1,335.6/share.

The companies that reflected the most losses included Rafhan Maize, down Rs190 to close at Rs9,600/share; and Nestle Pakistan, down Rs61.07 to end at Rs5,715.12/share.

The highest volumes were witnessed in WorldCall Telecom with a turnover of 716.8 million shares. The scrip gained 58 paisas to close at Rs4.22/share; followed by Hum Network with a turnover of 75.8 million shares. It gained 27 paisas to close at Rs8.69/share. K-Electric Limited was the third with a turnover of 59.62 million shares, as it gained 7 paisas to finish at Rs4.22.