KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) failed to carry forward the positive momentum from the previous session, with the KSE-100 Index ending in the red amid volatility.
Foreign investors closed the last week as net sellers, registering a net outflow of $11.59 million.
“The market saw some profit booking today on the back of developing situation on the international front and reclining oil prices, which came down after posting significant gains last week. As a result, exploration & production and oil & gas marketing companies traded with considerable volumes and largely maintained a higher average than the last trading session,” said an analyst at Arif Habib Ltd. “Banking sector stocks, on the other hand, posted losses amid low volumes and selling pressure due to prospect of a rate cut.”
The benchmark KSE-100 started the session on a negative note, losing 402.30 points to touch its intraday low at 33,709.34. The index, however, made a swift recovery and even stayed in the green for a brief while, before ending lower by 195.00 points at 33,916.64.
Among other indices, the KMI-30 Index dropped 494.76 points to close at 55,034.62, while the KSE All Share Index lost only 17.31 points, settling at 23,920.30. Of the total traded shares, 143 advanced and 155 declined.
The overall market volumes declined from 291.5 million in the previous session to 216.6 million (-26pc), with Maple Leaf Cement Factory Ltd (MLCF), Hascol Petroleum Limited (HASCOL), Unity Foods Ltd (UNITY), TRG Pakistan Ltd (TRG) and K-Electric Ltd (KEL) accounting for 30pc of the total volumes. Average traded value also declined by 24pc to $58.5 million, as against $76.7 million in the last session.
Sectors that drove the KSE-100 Index south included power generation & distribution (-88.45 points), cement (-50.87 points) and banking (-45.91 points). Among the companies, Hub Power Company Limited (-75.65 points), Engro Corporation Limited (ENGRO -28.98 points) and Mari Petroleum Company Limited (-26.49 points) depleted the index the most.
The cement sector lost 1.56pc in its cumulative market capitalization, with Maple Leaf Cement (MLCF -2.84pc), DG Khan Cement (DGKC -3.04pc), Lucky Cement (LUCK -1.90pc) and Kohat Cement (KOHC -3.69pc) closing in the red.
Meanwhile, the Pakistan Stock Exchange carried out Re-Composition and Rebalancing of UPP9 Index Companies, as per the index rules. “There is no change in constituents of UPP9 Index because of the re-composition, however, weights of index constituents have changed.”
The changes in UPP9 Index will be implemented from today (Tuesday).
