KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange Thursday closed negative as investors continued to trim positions with macroeconomic worries. This led market to erase 368 points from index, closing at 43,073 level.
The index was down 368 points by close of trading at 43,073, with 69 million shares of indexed scrips (worth Rs4.96 billion) traded over the day. The day’s high was 43,476 points (recorded shortly after day’s open), while the lowest point remained 42,940 points (hit around mid-day).
A total of 163m shares were traded on the PSX over the day, worth Rs7.4bn. Of the 352 scrips traded, 85 closed green, 243 declined in value and 24 traded sideways.
Textiles, cements and technology stocks invited the most attention, followed by powergen and chemicals scrips. Foreign investors were net sellers of $2.7m worth of securities during the day, with overseas Pakistanis partially offsetting a $3.64m selloff by foreign corporations.
On Wednesday, the stocks witnessed second consecutive negative session owing to rising concerns over macroeconomic indicators (declining reserves), prevailing political uncertainty, and lack of any trigger. Resultantly, the benchmark KSE 100-share index lost 264 points to close at 43,441 points.
DGKC, FCCL, MLCF showed low volumes and selling despite increasing cement price in north zone. Throughout the day, volume was especially low in DGKC; however, in the end trade was seen building up. Similarly, LUCK saw accumulation at the end of session, when market started losing points at pace. Lackluster activity in blue chips is evident from 31% volume traded in KSE-100 index as compared to total market volume.
The broader market volumes and value declined by 20% and 27%, respectively. Volumes declined from 177.5m shares to 142.4m shares (-20% DoD). Average traded value also declined by 27% DoD from $72.9m to $52.9m. Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes included MFL, PIAA, UNITY, ANL and SSGC, reflecting 28% of total volumes.
