KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) failed to carry forward the positive momentum from the previous week, with the KSE-100 Index closing in the red amid profit booking.
Foreign investors closed the last week (May 11-15, 2020) as net sellers, registering a net outflow of $10.91 million.
According to analysts, the market posted decent gains earlier on Monday but profit booking compelled the benchmark index to post losses at the end.
“The banking sector primarily led the market plunge, resulting in across the board losses,” said a report issued by Arif Hibab Ltd. “Cement sector also couldn’t escape selling pressure despite the fact that SBP’s rate cut was meant to benefit the leveraged cement players.”
The KSE-100 Index marked its intraday high after accumulating 384.79 points in early trade. However, failing to sustain gains, the index slid by 237.65 points to record its intraday low at 33,770.68. It finally settled lower by 203.36 points at 33,804.97.
Among other indices, the KMI-30 Index dropped 141.71 points to end at 55,220.37, whereas the KSE All Share Index added 37.45 points, closing at 24,245.47. Of the total traded shares, 141 advanced and 152 declined.
The overall market volumes increased from 213.3 million shares in the last session to 262 million shares (+23pc). Average traded value also surged by 17pc, from $38.8 million to $45.4 million. TRG Pakistan Limited (TRG +7.49pc), K-Electric Limited (KEL +1.96pc) and Worldcall Telecom (WTL -3.19pc) topped the volume chart, exchanging 22.53 million, 17.95 million and 17.32 million shares, respectively.
Sectors that dragged the index south included banking (-116.78 points), cement (-57.77 points) and miscellaneous (-41.76 points).
The banking sector lost -1.21pc from its cumulative market capitalisation, with MCB Bank Limited (MCB -2.34pc), United Bank Limited (UBL -2.02pc) and Bank AL Habib Limited (BAHL -3.02pc) closing in the red.
Meanwhile, in a notification to the exchange, BIPL Securities Limited (BIPLS +3.40pc) informed that it accepted AKD Securities Ltd’s request to be provided with access to data room for the purpose of conducting due diligence.
Also, TPL Trakker Limited a subsidiary of TPL Corp Limited (TPL 0.00pc), has received an approval to issue, circulate and publish prospectus for the issuance of 58.3 million ordinary shares with a green shoe option of up to an additional 57.42 million ordinary shares to general public at a fixed price of Rs12 per share.
