KARACHI: Extending the losses from the previous day, the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed the last session of the week in red, with indices succumbing to selling pressure after Supreme Court’s ruling on the GIDC issue.
Global equity markets, on the other hand, mostly showed a positive trend, whereas WTI crude oil prices remained steady; WTI crude price rising 0.05pc to $42.69 and Brent crude oil price declining 0.13pc to $45.38.
“After a positive start to proceedings, the index took a U-turn as soon as the Supreme Court announced its decision on the Gas Infrastructure Development Cess, which required industries to pay Rs417bn on account of GIDC to the government over a period of two years,” said a report issued by AHL Ltd. “Although the index tried to stage recovery to erase all the losses, profit booking kept the index in the red.”
MARKET SUMMARY
The benchmark KSE-100 remained in the negative zone for almost the entire session, marking its intraday low at 39,898.22 after shedding 574.96 points. It closed lower by 182.44 points at 40,290.74.
Among other indices, the KMI-30 Index dropped 20.47 points to end at 64,483.33, while the KSE All Share lost 86.82 points, settling at 28,134.26. Of the total traded scrips, 161 advanced and 186 declined.
The overall market volumes contracted further from 591.11 million shares in the previous session to 555.99 million shares (-6pc DoD). Average traded value also declined by 14pc, from $133.7 million to $115.2 million. Unity Foods Limited (UNITY +7.75pc), Hascol Petroleum Limited (HASCOL +6.38pc) and Unity Foods Limited Right Shares (UNITYR2 +32.05pc) led the volume chart, exchanging 60.27 million, 50.87 million and 50.64 million shares, respectively.
Sectors that pulled the benchmark index lower included fertilizer (202.30 points), the investment banking sector (27.23 points) and banking (19.32 points). Among the companies, Fauji Fertilizer Company Ltd (FFC 114.51 pts), Engro Corp Ltd (ENGRO 44.47 pts) and MCB Bank Ltd (MCB 27.01 pts) dented the index the most.
Shedding 3.58pc from its cumulative market capitalisation, the fertilizer sector turned out to be the session’s top loser, with Engro Corp (ENGRO -1.98pc), Fatima Fertilizer (FATIMA -2.79pc) and Fauji Fertilizer (FFC -6.31pc) closing in the red.
Meanwhile, Askari Bank Limited (AKBL +7.49pc) declared earnings per share of Rs2.46 for the second quarter of FY20, as compared Rs1.03 in the same period of last year. The bank’s half0year EPS was recorded at Rs3.93 as compared to Rs2.48 last year.
Also, Waves Singer Pakistan Limited (WAVES 3.60pc) announced that its board of directors has approved amendments to add the “development of affordable housing projects & all related real estate development activities” in its principal lines of business, subject to approval from shareholders and SECP.
