KARACHI: The share market fell by 293 points on Wednesday as selling pressure remained unabated during the day. The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 44,373 points as against previous day’s closing of 44,667 points.
Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that selling pressure continued unabated at the bourse, courtesy of foreign investors.
Eye watering commodity prices, especially Coal, have had their bearing on Cement and Steel sector stocks and had ripple effects on O&GMCs, E&P sectors due to concerns over potential increase in circular debt emanate from rising energy costs.
A key conditionality from IMF for resumption of program has been upward revision in electricity tariff, besides an end to subsidies and increase in tax revenues.
These measures in part or whole are expected to dent earnings growth of the corporate sector in the coming quarters, which is reflecting on stock prices as well.
Ripple effects of selling in cyclical as well as oil & gas chain are observed in overall market with significant selling pressure in TRG among tech sector stocks. Among scrips, UNITY led the volumes with 25.7 million shares, followed by TELE (20.1 million) and WTL (16.8 million).
Sectors contributing to the performance include Cement (-91 points), Textile (-36 points), Banks (-35 points), Technology (-30 points), Fertilizer (-24 points) and E&P (+36 points).
Volumes declined from 334.6 million shares to 252.8 million shares (-25 per cent DoD). Average traded value also declined by 26 per cent to reach US$ 59.0 million as against US$ 79.2 million.
Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include UNITY, TELE, WTL, TREET and BYCO, which formed 35 per cent of total volumes.
Stocks that contributed positively to the index include MARI (+43 points), UBL (+22 points), MTL (+8 points), COLG (+5 points) and NATF (+4 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include HBL (-28 points), CHCC (-24 points), KTML (-20 points), LUCK (-19 points) and ENGRO (-16 points).
