KARACHI: The stock market inched down on Friday in the wake of volatile trading, ending a week-long winning streak.
The news of $1-billion deposit from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and receipt of the last $1-billion tranche from Saudi Arabia failed to lift investor sentiments and bearish activity vastly persisted. Nevertheless, the deposits, coupled with concessions in relation to the gas infrastructure development cess (GIDC), sparked interest in fertiliser and textile stocks. A continued fall in State Bank’s foreign currency reserves may be partly blamed for the bearish session.
In the morning, trading began on a positive note, but uncertainty emerged soon after and dragged the market down after every rise. A selling spree towards the end of the first session pulled the bourse below 40,200 points.
Investors welcomed the second session with a rally due to arrival of Saudi funds, but it could not be sustained and the gains were wiped out. The chemical sector bore the brunt of volatility as most of the stocks closed in the red.
At the end of trading, the benchmark KSE 100-share Index recorded a decrease of 24.38 points, or 0.06%, to settle at 40,264.78.
JS Global analyst Maaz Mulla said market movements were reflective of a see-saw, where the KSE-100 index juggled between black and red, hitting the intra-day low of -123 points and intra-day high of +91 points. Total volumes were recorded at 156 million shares, down 37% from the previous session.
“The Bank of Punjab (+0.5%) and Pakistan International Bulk Terminal (-0.5%) led the volumes with cumulative trading in almost 44 million shares,” he pointed out. “On the news front, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) confirmed that Pakistan has received $1 billion from the UAE to help bridge the current account deficit.”
International Steels (-0.4%) declared its 1HFY19 results, where the company announced earnings per share of Rs4.02 and cash dividend of Rs1.50 per share, which came in line with expectations.
Investors’ interest was witnessed in Habib Bank (+0.9%) and United Bank (+3.2%) in the banking sector, which cumulatively contributed 63 points to the index.
The cement sector witnessed profit-booking where Fauji Cement (-1.8%), Pioneer Cement (-1.1%), DG Khan Cement (-1%), Cherat Cement (-0.5%) and Lucky Cement (-0.7%) lost value.
“Moving forward, we recommend investors to remain cautious, reduce short-term positions on strength and wait for technical breakout,” the analyst added.
Overall, trading volumes decreased to 156.12 million shares compared with Thursday’s tally of 245.87 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs6.46 billion.
Shares of 315 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 124 stocks closed higher, 180 declined and 11 remained unchanged.
The Bank of Punjab was the volume leader with 25.3 million shares, gaining Rs0.06 to close at Rs13.24. It was followed by Pakistan International Bulk Terminal with 18.6 million shares, losing Rs0.06 to close at Rs11.95 and Fauji Foods with 8.7 million shares, gaining Rs1.65 to close at Rs34.68.
Foreign institutional investors were net buyers of Rs457.3 million worth of shares during the trading session, according to data compiled by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan.
