KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed another volatile trading session on Wednesday, as the indices changed directions all day long before closing in the negative zone.
Foreign investors closed the preceding session (Tuesday) as net buyers, with a net inflow of $0.901 million.
The KSE-100 Index marked its intraday low at 42,143.90 after losing 482.58 points. However, the cement sector came to the rescue in the latter half of the day, helping the index close slightly lower by 65.21 points at 42,561.27.
Sectors that drove the index south included oil and gas (-70.75 points), oil and gas marketing (-36.10 points) and tobacco (-36.10 points). On the other hand, cement (+57.53 points), fertilizer (+33.23 points) and banking (+10.75 points) sectors remained the top positive contributors.
Among the companies, the Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDC -71.40 points), Pakistan Tobacco Company Limited (PAKT -21.72 points) and Dawood Hercules Corporation Limited (DAWH -16.55 points) dented the index the most, whereas Lucky Cement Limited (LUCK +42.20 points), Fauji Fertilizer Company Limited (FFC +20.36 points) and Engro Corporation Limited (ENGRO +17.60 points) ended as the top positive contributors.
The KMI-30 Index closed lower by 145.10 points at 68,804.99, while the KSE All Share Index fell by 174.32 points, ending at 29,561.63. Out of the total traded shares, 125 advanced while 177 declined.
The overall market volumes remained stable at 177.98 million. The Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDC -3.37pc), Maple Leaf Cement Factory Limited (MLCF +2.02pc) and Unity Foods Limited (UNITY -3.91pc) turned out to be the volume leaders of the day, exchanging 19.24 million, 9.01 million and 8.51 million shares, respectively.
On the market front, Attock Petroleum Limited (APL -5.05pc) sank to its lower circuit breaker following the declaration of its 2QFY20 financials. The company’s sales remained stable while gross profit margin slipped from 2.5pc in the same period last year to 1.62pc. Earnings per share dropped by 36pc (2QFY19: Rs5.58, 2QFY20: Rs 3.57).
Honda Atlas Cars (Pakistan) Limited (HCAR -0.53pc) is scheduled to declare its financials for the third quarter and nine months ended December 31, 2019, on Thursday (tomorrow). The company’s market share has declined from 13.53pc in April 2019 to 8.85pc in December 2019. In the last quarter, it reported an EPS of Rs3.57, which was a fall of 51pc compared to the same period last year. The HCAR stock price has fallen from Rs316.39 in June 2018 to Rs132.65 in September 2019, a slump of 58pc.
