PSX loses 248pts amid profit-taking

Buy the rumour, sell the news: PSX loses 248pts amid profit-taking

KARACHI, ((Ind:Report): Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) turned to profit-taking on Thursday after the benchmark index gained 4,062.27 points in the previous eight sessions, with the KSE-100 Index losing 247.99 points (-0.54 percent) to close at 45,266.96 points.

The stock market rode a wave of positivity owing to the approval of the 9-month standby agreement (SBA), worth $3 billion, for Pakistan by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) executive board a day earlier. Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said that the IMF has transferred $1.2 billion to the central bank’s account on Thursday. He said that the funds would shore up Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves, noting that this would also include the $1bn transferred by the United Arab Emirates a day earlier and $2bn transferred by Saudi Arabia a couple of days back. The minister said that there had been a $4.2bn increase in the SBP’s reserves during the week.

The market opened on a bullish note and the benchmark index neared the 46,000 points threshold, but investors preferred to cash in their gains, bringing down the indices. The benchmark index traded in a range of 715.41 points showing an intraday high of 45,970.99 points and an intraday low of 45,255.58 points.

Among other indices, the KSE All Share Index shed 89 points (-0.29 percent) to close at 30,360.75 points, while KMI All Share Islamic Index shed 43.35 points (-0.19 percent) to close at 22,315.46 points.

Total volumes traded for the KSE-100 Index increased by 18.51 million shares to 225.22 million shares against 206.71 million shares traded a session earlier. The overall market volumes increased by 38.92 million shares to 489.18 million shares against 450.26 million shares traded a session earlier.

Among scrips, WTL topped the volumes with 55.54 million shares, followed by TPLP (42.17 million) and KEL (30.45 million). Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes included WTL, TPLP, KEL, UNITY, and PRL, which formed around 34 percent of total volumes.

A total of 360 companies traded shares in the stock exchange against 355 a session earlier, out of which shares of 141 closed up, shares of 190 closed down while shares of 29 companies remained unchanged. A total of 96 companies traded shares in the KSE-100 Index against 97 a session earlier, out of which shares of 30 companies closed up, 61 closed down and five remained unchanged. The number of total trades increased by 13,527 to 185,001 against 171,474 trades in the previous session, while the value traded increased by Rs1.4 billion to Rs14.54 billion.

In terms of rupee, COLG remained the top gainer and witnessed an increase of Rs61.4 (+4.81 percent) per share, closing at R1,337.23. The runner-up remained KHYT, the share price of which climbed up by Rs42.91 (+5.36 percent) to Rs844. SAPT remained the top loser in terms of rupee and witnessed a decrease of Rs59.49 (-5.36 percent) per share, closing at Rs1,050.51, followed by MEHT, the share price of which fell by Rs57.75 (-7.5 percent) to close at Rs712.25 per share.

The sectors taking the index towards south were commercial banks (100 points), technology & communication (67 points), fertilizer (32 points), textile composite (26 points), and oil & gas exploration companies (18 points). The major companies depriving the index of points remained SYS (63 points), UBL (50 points), ENGRO (19 points), MARI (14 points), and MEBL (13 points).

The sectors taking the index towards north were automobile assembler (19 points), chemical (18 points), pharmaceuticals (12 points), refinery (4 points), and food & personal care products (3 points). The major companies adding points to the index remained COLG (42 points), SEARL (16 points), KEL (12 points), UNITY (11 points), and MTL (10 points).