LAHORE: The KSE 100 index continued its northbound move during early trading as inertia from the previous session kept bulls in control of market moves. After touching an intraday high within the first hour (+137.96 points or +0.30 per cent) the KSE 100 index slipped amid profit taking, tripping over various intraday supports the KSE 100 index closed down 128.43 points (-0.28 per cent) at 45,259.34.
The second half started on a buoyant note driven by earnings announcements from Engro Fertilizer (EFERT) with 1Q consolidated net profit after tax (NPAT) of Rs3.89 billion or earnings per share (EPS) of Rs2.91; up 2.4x YoY and Amreli Steels (ASTL) with 3QFY18 NPAT of Rs473 million or EPS of Rs1.59; up by 40 per cent YoY.
A sharp selloff during the last half an hour pushed the KSE 100 index to post a fresh intraday low amid heavy profit taking from institutional sellers. Market volume and turnover for the KSE 100 index slumped by 48 per cent and 29 per cent on day on day basis as market watchers continue to show risk-averse behaviour.
Despite thin participation investor participation shot up in selected names, mainly in EFERT (9.1 per cent of total turnover – up 804 per cent on daily basis), ENGRO (+9 per cent of total turnover – up 138 per cent on daily basis) and MTL (8.6 per cent of total turnover – up 18 per cent on daily basis) amid phenomenal earnings growth and sound prospects for the near future.
A late session meltdown came on the back of heavy declines in energy (-0.64 per cent), financials (-0.58 per cent) and utilities (-0.47 per cent) amid sharp losses in POL (-1.71 per cent), OGDC (-0.61 per cent), PPL (-0.54 per cent), UBL (-2.19 per cent), HBL (-1.05 per cent) and HUBC (-1.18 per cent). Additional losses came from industrials (-0.41 per cent) and materials (-0.31 per cent) amid losses in LUCK (-2.07 per cent), DGKC (-1.94 per cent) FFC (-0.40 per cent) and TRG (-1.45 per cent).
On the flip side, consumer staples came into limelight amid positive contribution from COLG (+4.8 per cent) and PAKT (+2.50 per cent).
For the outgoing week, the KSE 100 index lost -812.52 points (-1.76 per cent) with main contribution to downside coming from HBL (-5.15 per cent), OGDC (-6.57 per cent) and UBL (-4.33 per cent) taking away -402 points.
Market participation for the KSE 100 index declined to 57.83 million shares (-48 per cent on daily basis). Major contribution to total market volume came from LOTCHEM (-2.76 per cent), EPCL (+0.96 per cent) and ANL (-5.91 per cent) churning 38.04 million shares out of the All Share Index’s volume of 144.01 million shares.
Daily traded value for the KSE 100 index declined to $39.86 million from $56.25 million in the previous session (-29 per cent on daily basis); EFERT ($3.63 million), ENGRO ($3.59 million) and MTL ($3.42 million) were among top contributors from a traded value perspective. Major contribution to the KSE 100 index downside came from UBL (-2.19 per cent), LUCK (-2.07 per cent), HBL (-1.05 per cent), POL (-1.71 per cent) and HUBC (-1.18 per cent) taking away 155 points. On the flip side, EFERT (+1.90 per cent), KTML (+4.86 per cent) and COLG (+4.79 per cent) added 47 points. The KSE 100 index is 20 per cent above its 52-week low of 37,736.73 reached on December 12, 2017, and 15 per cent below its 52-week high of 53,127.24 touched on May 25, 2017.
