Pakistan stocks shed 68 points on rupee depreciation

KARACHI: Stocks fell by 68 points on Wednesday as Pakistan Rupee (PKR) extended losses against the US dollar during the day.

The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) ended at 42,458 points as compared with previous day’s closing of 42,526 points, showing a decline of 68 points.

Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the benchmark KSE-100 index opened in the green zone as rupee, during the day, snapped its losing streak against the dollar gaining Rs3.80 in the interbank market.

The rupee made the gain a day after the government secured the much-anticipated deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

“However, this gaining of Rupee against dollar was short-lived as PKR closed at 211.93,” the analysts said.

Investor opted for profit-taking in the last trading hour which led the index to close in the red zone. Volumes remained healthy in the main board stocks.

The Index closed at 42,458.14 points, down by 67.81 points (-0.16 per cent DoD). Sectors contributing to the performance include Cement (-39.7 points), Technology (-28.2 points), E&P’s (-21.4 points), OMC’s (-18.7 points) and Pharma (-11.6 points).

Volumes decreased from 300.6 million shares to 266.1 million shares (-11.5 per cent DoD). Average traded value also decreased by 10.6 per cent to reach US$ 40.0 million as against US$ 44.7 million.

Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes are PRL, TPLP, CNERGY, GGL and UNITY.