Equities shed 364 points as SLA delay disappoints investors

KARACHI: Pakistan equities ended down by 364 points on Friday as staff delay in level agreement (SLA) disappointed investors.

The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) ended at 41,330 points from previous day’s closing 41,694 points, showing a decline of 364 points.

Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that to cap off the business week, the PSX recorded a negative session.

The market opened in the negative zone but continued to trade both ways during the opening session, as anticipated SLA agreement between the government and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is prolonged.

The second session commenced, and investors chose to book profits as the index fell to an intraday low of 423.28 points due to the current political uncertainty and the impending uncertain weekend on both the political and economic fronts.

Investors’ participation remained sluggish although dull volumes were witnessed across the board.

Sectors contributing to the performance include Technology & Communication (-103.7 points), Fertilizer (-71.2 points), Commercial Banks (-50.1 points), Miscellaneous (-47.9 points), and E&P’s (-36.9 points).

Volumes decreased from 234.7 million shares to 172.6 million shares (-26.5 per cent DoD). The average traded value also decreased by -7.7 per cent to $28.47 million as against $26.42 million.

Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes are HBL, HASCOL, PIBTL, WTL and FFL.