Pakistan equity market remains bearish; down 366 points

KARACHI: The Pakistan stock market took a negative turn on Monday, primarily due to the selloff in technology stocks, dealers said.

Institutional investors were on the selling side, partly due to the redemptions and otherwise due to the concerns on the rising current account deficit and inflation on the back of possible tariff hike.

Muhammad Mubashir at JS Global Capital said: “As anticipated, the KSE-100 Index further lost its ground today due to the ongoing pandemic situation in the country, eventually closing 366 points below Friday’s close. Going forward, the benchmark index can further slide down in the coming days. We; therefore, recommend investors to adopt a buy on dips strategy in steel, technology, refinery and cement sectors.”

The Pakistan Stock Exchange KSE-100 shares index shed 0.77 per cent, or 366.33 points, to close at 47,123.62 points. The KSE-30 shares index shed 0.8 per cent, or 151.31 points, to close at 18,814.40 points.

As many as 469 scrips were active, of which 73 advanced, 372 declined and 24 remained unchanged. The ready market volumes stood at 337.29 million shares, compared with the turnover of 499.73 million shares in the last trading session.

An analyst at Topline Securities said after opening the session in the positive territory and posting an intraday high of 135 points, the index slid throughout the day to eventually settle at a loss of 366 points.

“Lucky Cement announced its consolidated FY21 earnings of Rs70.69/share, below expectations, after which the scrip closed 1.79 per cent down, as investors were disappointed. Moreover, [the] United Bank Limited (UBL) announced half-year earnings of Rs12.16/share along with [the] cash dividend of Rs4/share due to which [the] stock closed up 0.62 per cent.

An analyst at Pearl Securities said the KSE-100 index started the week on a positive note, as business and commercial activities shuffled back to normalcy, amid removal of the lockdown implication.

“Despite this, the continuation of prevailing virus spread in the country disturbed the investors’ sentiment and exerted pressure at the bourse. Therefore, with no additional positive trigger, the initial gains of the index were wiped off during the session.”

“Going forward, analysts expect the market to move both ways; therefore, we recommend our investors to book profits at a higher level.”

The companies, which reflected the highest gains included Wyeth Pakistan, up Rs47.19 to close at Rs2004.57/share; and Nestle Pakistan, up Rs45 to close at Rs6,000/share.

The companies that reflected the most losses included Colgate Palmolive, down Rs100 to close at Rs2,800/share and Wah Noble, down Rs22.99 to end at Rs285.01/share.

The highest volumes were witnessed in WorldCall Telecom with a turnover of 42.22 million shares. The scrip shed 13 paisas to close at Rs3.36/share; followed by Fauji Foods with the turnover of 17.40 million shares. It shed Rs1.62 to close at Rs20.13/share. Ghani Global was the third with a turnover of 17.33 million shares. It shed Rs3.15 paisas to finish at Rs39.50.