KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) remained bearish for the second consecutive day on Wednesday amid the Pakistani rupee’s depreciation to a record low against the US dollar, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index shedding 174.62 points (-0.37 per cent) to close at 46,716.72 points.
The market opened on a positive note but remained positive for a few minutes only and then switched towards the red zone following the rupee’s depreciation that hit an all-time low against the greenback. The KSE-100 Index moved in a range of 447.2 points, showing an intraday high of 46,952.3 points and a low of 46,505.1 points.
Among other indices, the KSE All Share Index shed 92.57 points (-0.29pc) to close at 32,058.99 points, while All Share Islamic Index shed 159.48 points (-0.69pc) to close at 22,949.11 points.
A total of 387 companies traded shares in the stock exchange, out of which 132 closed up, shares of 228 closed down while shares of 27 companies remained unchanged. Out of 96 traded companies in the KSE-100 Index, 27 closed up, 63 closed down, while six remained unchanged.
The overall market volumes decreased by 147.01 million to 332.79 million shares. The total volume traded for the KSE-100 Index was 118.28 million shares. The number of total trades decreased by 36,441 to 115,927, while the value traded decreased by Rs3.60 billion to Rs11.44 billion. The market capitalisation decreased by Rs24.09 billion.
Among scrips, TPL led the volumes table with 29.62 million shares, followed by TELE (28.26 million) and BYCO (23.29 million). Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include TPL, TELE, BYCO, SERFR and WTL, which are around 36pc of total volumes.
Sector-wise, the index was let down by cement with 83 points, textile composite with 22 points, pharmaceuticals with 21 points, oil & gas exploration companies with 20 points and investment banks/ investment companies/ securities companies with 18 points. The most points taken off the index were by MLCF which stripped the index of 21 points followed by HMB with 18 points, SYS with 17 points, AGP with 17 points and MEBL with 16 points.
The sectors propping up the index were commercial banks with 45 points, fertilizer with 17 points, technology & communication with 6 points, insurance with 4 points and leather & tanneries with 2 points. The most points added to the index was by UBL which contributed 30 points followed by TRG with 22 points, FFBL with 16 points, BAHL with 15 points and FABL with 12 points.
According to experts, following a collapse of the Pakistani rupee against the US dollar that closed at a new low of Rs169.12 in the interbank market, the capital market witnessed selling pressure throughout the trading session. Unabated foreign selling coincided with local mutual funds disposing of positions on the pretext of redemptions, as per the market closing note by Arif Habib Limited.
