PSX remains lacklustre ahead of FATF meeting next week

The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed lacklustre trading activity on Wednesday, as investors are eyeing the outcome of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) meeting, scheduled next week, dealers said.

An analyst at Pearl Securities said the benchmark index initiated the trading session in the green territory, as G20 members agreed to suspend debt payments for Pakistan.

“However, volatility was witnessed, as the negotiations between Pakistan and [the] IMF [International Monetary Fund] ended without consensus over [the] upcoming tranche.”

In addition, the government has increased the prices of all petroleum products up to 4 per cent for the next 15 days.
The Pakistan Stock Exchange KSE-100 shares index sheds 0.31 per cent, or 151.66 points, to close at 48,480.90 points. The KSE-30 shares index sheds 0.39 per cent, or 77.25 points, to close at 19,547.77 points.

As many as 416 scrips were active, of which 171 advanced, 221 declined and 24 remained unchanged. The ready market volumes stood at 936.66 million shares, compared with the turnover of 1.22 billion shares in the last trading session.

Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp said that the stocks closed lower on the concerns over raise in the power tariff for the industrial sector by the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra), and a surge in the local petroleum products prices.

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“Oil and cement scrips outperformed on surging global oil prices. However, the rupee’s instability and foreign outflows played a catalytic role in the bearish close.”

An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said the market saw persistent selling pressure that was felt across-the-board and made the index trade between -201 points and +246 points, closing the session down.

“Among exploration and production (E&P), Oil and Gas Development Company (OGDC) and Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) both traded lower, while Pakistan Oilfields Limited (POL) showed price uptick. The cement sector also traded in a narrow range.”

Going forward, the analysts expect the market to move both ways; therefore, investors were recommended to book profits at higher level.

The companies that reflected the highest gains included Pakistan Tobacco, up Rs60 to close at Rs1,370/share; and Wyeth Pakistan, up Rs46.57 to end at Rs2,243.38/share.

The companies, which reflected the most losses included Unilever Foods, down Rs250 to close at Rs16,550/share; and Rafhan Maize, down Rs234.55 to end at Rs9,455.45/share.

Highest volumes were witnessed in K-Electric with a turnover of 114.97 million shares. The scrip sheds 22 paisas to close at Rs4.47 share; followed by the WorldCall Telecom with a turnover of 87.34 million shares. It sheds 13 paisas to close at Rs3.84/share. Byco Petroleum was the third with a turnover of 63.18 million shares. It sheds 16 paisas to finish at Rs12.86.

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