KARACHI: Pakistan stocks have declined by 290 points on Thursday owing to further depreciation in Pakistan Rupee (PKR) against the dollar.
The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) ended at 45,653 points from previous day’s closing of 45,943, showing a decline of 290 points.
READ MORE: Stocks slide 390 points on volatile exchange rate
Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the market remained under pressure today due to further devaluation of PKR against the US Dollar and concerns over spikes in Market Treasury Bill yields.
READ MORE: Dollar ends near PKR 187 in interbank market
Despite opening in the green zone KSE-100 failed to sustain the positive zone as profit taking was observed. “In the last trading hour rally was witnessed in the refinery sector as PRL announced tremendous financial results beating analyst expectations.”
Analysts at Topline Securities said that Pakistan equities had a direction less day today where the benchmark KSE 100 index kicked off the day in the green zone, made an intraday high at 46,067 (+124 points; up 0.27 per cent) and low at 45,600 (-343 points; down 0.75 per cent) before settling at 45,653 (-291 points; down 0.63 per cent) for the day.
READ MORE: Pakistan stocks shed 206 points on profit taking
During the day, ENGRO announced its 1Q2022 result where EPS clocked at Rs13.84 (-4 per cent YoY while up 67 per cent QoQ). Earnings was above industry expectations. In addition to this, the result also accompanied a dividend of Rs.12 per share. Moreover, above expected refinery sector companies (ATRL & PRL) results lured investors’ interest in both the names as they closed +2.31 per cent & +7.46 per cent, respectively.
READ MORE: Pakistan stocks shed 62 points on profit taking
Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (-61.8 points), E&P (-37.3 points), Fertilizer (-35.3 points), Cement (-34.7 points) and Technology (-32.1 points)
Volumes decreased from 235.0 million shares to 186.4 million shares (-20.7 per cent DoD). Average traded value also decreased by 29.8 per cent to reach US$ 30.1 million as against US$ 42.8 million.
