Equity market stays bearish as investors remain jittery

KARACHI: Pakistan equity market continued its downward trend on Friday, as investors remained jittery over the limits imposed by the central bank on automobile and industrial financing, just after increasing the interest rates, dealers said.

An analyst at Topline Securities said continuing its bearish momentum, the KSE-100 index largely remained in the red zone on the last trading session of the week, as 25bps increase in the key interest rates by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) earlier this week kept the investors’ sentiment bearish.

“TRG Pakistan, MCB Bank, Cherat Cement, Indus Motor and Fauji Fertilizer Bin Qasim lost value to weigh down on the index by 102 points.

The Pakistan Stock Exchange KSE-100 shares index shed 0.49 per cent, or 223.36 points, to close at 45,073.52 points. The KSE-30 shares index shed 0.38 per cent, or 68.18 points, to close at 17,742.36 points.

As many as 510 scrips were active, of which 146 advanced, 351 declined and 13 remained unchanged. The ready market volumes stood at 369.53 million shares, compared with the turnover of 443.77 million shares in the last trading session.

Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp said that the stocks fell sharply on economic uncertainty, amid reports of the State Bank of Pakistan decisions on bank financing limits to autos and industrial imports.

“Investors’ concerns for the rupee instability, current account deficits and surging government bond yields played a catalytic role in the bearish close.”

The companies, which reflected the highest gains included Colgate Palmolive, up Rs134.84 to close at Rs2,44485/share; and Rafhan Maize, up Rs74.50 to close at Rs10,649.5/share.

The companies that reflected the most losses included Sapphire Fiber, down Rs60 to close at Rs800/share; and Indus Motor, down Rs56.7 to close at Rs1,143.37/share.

The highest volumes were witnessed in WorldCall Telecom with a turnover of 39.7 million shares. The scrip shed eight paisas to close at Rs2.87/share; followed by Unity Foods with a turnover of 36.17 million shares. It shed Rs1.05 to close at Rs31.91/share. Byco Petroleum remained the third with a turnover of 29.57 million shares. It shed 26 paisas to finish at Rs7.56.