KARACHI: On Thursday, bears gained control of the Pakistan Stock Exchange’s trading floor following the nomination of Punjab’s chief minister and prime minister by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, which also initiated talks with various parties over the establishment of coalition governments.
Additionally, the PML-N camp responded strongly to the Pakistan Peoples Party’s reluctance to join Shehbaz Sharif’s cabinet despite declaring support for his election as prime minister, intensifying political unrest and forcing sellers to liquidate overnight gains in the benchmark KSE 100-share index.
Topline Securities Ltd reported that while the index reached an intraday high at 62,394 level (240 points), stocks started trading positively and remained in the green zone for the most of the day.
But, it began to backfire once news broke on various media outlets about PTI holding discussions with other parties to form governments in Punjab and the center. The good momentum in the market was quickly destroyed by this occurrence.
The sectors that contribute negatively to the index are exploration and production, electricity, banks, and fertilisers. The index saw cumulative losses of 438 points for Oil and Gas Development Company Ltd, Pakistan Petroleum Ltd, Hub electricity, UBL, and Engro Corporation.
According to Arif Habib Corporation’s Ahsan Mehanti, default concerns resulting from political unpredictability, policy uncertainty, and the ECC’s dramatic increase in gas prices to fulfill an IMF deadline for collecting an extra Rs242 billion from gas consumers, primarily in the industry sector, were what sparked the negative close.
The KSE-100 index fell 1,133.78 points, or 1.82 percent, from the previous session and ended at 61,020.06 points as a result.
The total number of shares traded increased by 13.57 percent to 345.12 million. Day-over-day, the transacted value rose by 19.15 per cent to Rs11.87 billion.
Pakistan K-Electric (33.32 million shares), Pakistan International Airlines Corporation (28.60 million shares), Media Times Ltd (22.42 million shares), Hascol Petroleum Ltd (15.87 million shares), and Bank of Punjab (12.02 million shares) were among the stocks that made up a substantial portion of the traded volume.
Mari Petroleum Ltd (Rs54.67), Mehmood Textile Mills Ltd (Rs42.76), Indus Motor Company Ltd (Rs40.99), Pakistan Tobacco Company Ltd (Rs40.00), and JDW Sugar Mills Ltd (Rs24.49) were the companies with the largest absolute declines in share prices.
Rafhan Maize Ltd. (Rs223.75), Philip Morris (Rs11.50), Sazgar Engineering Ltd. (Rs11.26), Pakistan Hotels Developers Ltd. (Rs5.93), and Ellcot Spinning Mills Ltd. (Rs5.78) were the shares with the largest increases in value.
Foreign investors liquidated shares valued at $0.45 million, turning them into net sellers.
SOURCE: DAWN NEWS
