Pakistan equity market closes lower on institutional profit-taking

KARACHI: The Pakistan stocks witnessed a miniscule correction on Friday, as both domestic and foreign investors opted for profit-booking, amid rising trade deficit, dealers said.

Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp said the stocks closed lower on institutional profit-taking, amid high CPI inflation at 9.7 per cent in June 2021 and trade deficit of $30.8 billion, surging 33 per cent for FY21.

“[The] oil and auto stocks outperformed on upbeat petroleum products sales and tax concessions in the auto sector. However, investors’ concerns over [the] likely MSCI downgrade to [the] Frontier Markets status, circular debt of over Rs2.327 trillion and [the] foreign selling played a catalytic role in the bearish close.”

The Pakistan Stock Exchange KSE-100 shares index shed 0.24 per cent, or 114.39 points, to close at 47,686.18 points. The KSE-30 shares index shed 0.17 per cent, or 33.32 points, to close at 19,100.47 points.

As many as 414 scrips were active, of which 175 advanced, 224 declined and 15 remained unchanged. The ready market volumes stood at 563.81 million shares, compared with the turnover of 760 million shares in the last trading session.

An analyst at Topline Securities said in continuation of the previous day’s momentum, the market remained in the positive zone during the first half of the trading session, but pressure was observed in the second half, as investors came in to book their profits above 48,000 points level.

Muhammad Mubashir at JS Global Capital said the market opened positive and hit an intraday high of +279 points after which profit-taking dragged the index down.

“Mainly pressure was witnessed in cement and refinery sectors. [The] investors’ interest was witnessed in Sazgar Engineering (up 6.6 per cent) on the back of material information that the Greenfield investment status has been awarded by the Ministry of Industries and Production.”

On the news front, the minister for energy assured that the power generation is expected to improve by Monday, as the re-gasified liquefied natural gas (RLNG) supply has been restored.

Going forward, analysts expect volatility in the market and recommend investors’ to avail of any downside as a buying opportunity in the cement and textile sectors.

The companies that reflected the highest gains included Sapphire Fiber, up Rs57 to close at Rs847/share; and Bata Pakistan, up Rs47.39 to close at Rs1,719/share.

The companies, which reflected the most losses included Unilever Foods, down Rs990 to close at Rs16,000/share; and Gatron Industries, down Rs32.20 to end at Rs442/share.

The highest volumes were witnessed in Hascol Petroleum with a turnover of 49.53 million shares. The scrip shed 85 paisas to close at Rs8.26/share; followed by WorldCall Telecom with a turnover of 43.77 million shares. It shed 4 paisas to close at Rs4.06/share. Kohinoor Spinning was the third with a turnover of 28.88 million shares. It gained 62 paisas to finish at Rs6.19.

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