The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) returned back to its bearish trend on Wednesday after showing some resistance a day earlier, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index shedding 661.3 points (-1.51 percent) to close at 43,221.78 points. The market opened on a positive note and crossed the 44,000 points psychological level; however later on, it failed to sustain the gains amid ongoing political turbulence in the federal capital and confusion over the appointment of new director general of the premier spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), which damaged investors’ confidence.
Moreover, concerns surrounding an uptick in local fuel and energy prices on recommendation of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) also forced investors to book profit on current valuations. The IMF’s fresh demand has surfaced during the ongoing virtual talks in the context of losses incurred on account of non-collection of petroleum levy of over Rs600 billion during the current fiscal year. The IMF also recommended further jack up in the base price of electricity tariff to the tune of Rs1.40 per unit to curtail the surge in circular debt. The IMF has also asked Pakistan to take additional taxation measures in the shape of income tax, sales tax, and regulatory duty for jacking up the annual tax collection target from Rs5.8 trillion to Rs6.3 trillion.
The KSE-100 Index moved in a range of 1,105.1 points, showing an intraday high of 44,172.7 points and a low of 43,067.6 points. Among other indices, the KSE All Share Index shed 375.71 points (-1.24 percent) to close at 29,850.69 points, while All Share Islamic Index shed 304.68 points (-1.42 percent) to close at 21,163.92 points.
A total of 369 companies traded shares in the stock exchange, out of them shares of 71 closed up, shares of 279 closed down while shares of 19 companies remained unchanged. Out of 95 traded companies in the KSE-100 Index, 14 closed up, 77 closed down and while four remained unchanged.
The overall market volumes decreased by 49.95 million to 354.96 million shares. Total volume traded for the KSE-100 Index was 156.34 million shares. The number of total trades decreased by 13,762 to 117,084, while the value traded decreased by Rs3.31 billion to Rs12.29 billion. The market capitalisation decreased by Rs104.06 billion. Among scrips, HASCOL led the table with 36.76 million shares, followed by WTL (28.87 million) and TELE (17.01 million). Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include HASCOL, WTL, TELE, GGL and TRG, which formed over 32 percent of total volumes.
Sector wise, the index was let down by technology & communication with 185 points, cement with 107 points, oil & gas exploration companies with 66 points, commercial banks with 45 points and food & personal care products with 39 points. The most points taken off the index were by TRG which stripped the index of 110 points followed by SYS with 63 points, UBL with 41 points, LUCK with 28 points and ENGRO with 24 points.
