Pakistan Stock Exchange remains volatile

KARACHI: The Pakistan stocks witnessed a volatile session on Tuesday ahead of the monetary policy announcement later in the day; wherein, the index made an intraday high of +237 points and a low of -56 points to finally close flat, dealers said.

An analyst at Pearl Securities said the volatility continued at the bourse where the initial gains of the index were wiped off in the last hours of the session.

“The weak market sentiment was witnessed on the backdrop of the upcoming MPS [monetary policy statement] announcement. Furthermore, the country has reported the highest Covid-19 positivity since July 1, 2021, detecting 3,752 cases with a positivity ratio of 7.5 per cent.”

The Pakistan Stock Exchange KSE-100 shares index gained 0.03 per cent, or 14.31 points, to close at 47,686.99 points. The KSE-30 shares index gained 0.12 per cent, or 24.74 points, to close at 19,129.61 points.

As many as 432 scrips were active, of which 165 advanced, 259 declined and eight remained unchanged.

The ready market volumes stood at 432.62 million shares, compared with the turnover of 450.20 million shares in the last trading session.

An analyst at Topline Securities said profit-taking was witnessed in the last hours at the local bourse. “Concerns regarding rising Covid cases and implementation of [the] lockdown kept the market gains in check. Further, investors remained focused on the upcoming monetary policy.”

The textile sector came under limelight, owing to the rupee devaluation, as Gul Ahmed Textile (GATM), Kohinoor Textile Mills (KTML) and Nishat Mills Limited (NML) cumulatively added 37 points to the index. The fertiliser sector also saw renewed investors’ interest on reports of Rs50/bag increase in urea prices.

Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp said that the stocks showed recovery, amid thin trade on the speculations ahead of the monetary policy announcement.

“[The] mid-session pressure remained on falling Asian equities and concerns over reports of recovery of the Gas Infrastructure Development Cess (GIDC) worth Rs473 billion from industrials. However, [the] reports of PSDP utilisation of Rs551.40 billion, surge in consumers’ loan to Rs708 billion in June 2021 and [the] rupee recovery on export earnings, played a catalytic role in the positive close.”

The companies that reflected the highest gains included Sapphire Textile, up Rs67.50 to close at Rs967.5/share; and Sapphire fiber, up Rs60 to close at Rs860/share.

The Companies, which reflected the most losses included Colgate Palmolive, down Rs83.46 to close at Rs2,694/share; and AKD Hospitality, down Rs30 to end at Rs415/share.

The highest volumes were witnessed in WorldCall Telecom with a turnover of 36.63 million shares. The scrip shed 10 paisas to close at Rs3.74/share; followed by Byco Petroleum with a turnover of 34.55 million shares. It shed 21 paisas to close at Rs10.06/share. KASB Modaraba was the third with a turnover of 17.83 million shares. It gained 41 paisas to finish at Rs3.34.

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