Bears continued ruling over the Pakistan Stock Exchange for the fourth consecutive day on Thursday as they pulled the KSE-100 below the 44,000-point barrier due to a number of disappointing developments. The benchmark KSE-100 index has now dipped over 2,550 points since the start of the week.
The strike called by petroleum dealers beckoned a slump in economic activity throughout the day and fast-tracked the market’s decline.
Investors also took a cue from the surge in Pakistan’s debt to its record high levels and decided to sell off their holdings.
Furthermore, market prospects of steep appreciation in the domestic unit against the greenback after the resumption of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout proved to be wrong and further added to the dampening of spirit among market participants. The bourse continued witnessing foreign selling fueling the fall further.
Trading started on a positive note but the market failed to sustain the uptrend and started its descent within the initial hour. The index dropped steadily throughout the session however late session buying erased few of the losses.
At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index recorded a decline of 427.95 points, or 0.96%, to settle at 43,935.75.
Arif Habib Limited shared a report stating that bears ruled over the bulls for the fourth consecutive session in a week owing to concerns regarding the devaluation of rupee and the foreign selling spree.
Roll-over week remained under pressure despite attractive valuations in terms of low-price earnings multiples and high dividend yields.
As per data compiled by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs1.66 billion worth of shares during the trading.
Technology stocks stayed in the limelight throughout the session as traders placed the bet on high-beta stocks to mark quick trading gains.
As per the report, institutional investors on the other hand fetched for value hunting during the last trading hour.
Analyst at JS Global Waqar Iqbal said that the market witnessed the continuation of selling pressure from previous sessions.
He added, “Foreign selling kept the market under pressure which led the index to decline by 428 points to close at the level of 43,936”.
Total traded volumes remained thin at 195 million shares with volume leaders TPL Properties (0.8%), Byco Petroleum (1.9%), and Hubco (-3.1%).
Iqbal noted,” We believe market participants now keep an eye out for announcements on the economic side, where it is expected that the inflation reading for November will set the direction for the index going forward”.
Overall trading volumes dipped to 195.2 million shares compared with Wednesday’s tally of 310.4 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs8.4 billion.
Shares of 328 companies were traded. Towards the closing of the day, 121 stocks closed higher, 185 declined and 22 remained unchanged.
TPL Properties XB led the volume chart with 16.3 million shares, gaining Rs0.34 to close at Rs42.73. It was followed by Byco Petroleum with 12.2 million shares, gaining Rs0.12 to close at Rs6.44, and Hub Power Company with 9.5 million shares, losing Rs2.25 to close at Rs69.94.
