Stock market sheds 204 points on tax exemption withdrawal

Stock market sheds 204 points on tax exemption withdrawal

KARACHI:  The stock market lost 204 points on Friday owing to withdrawal of tax exemption through a presidential ordinance.

The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 45,521 points as against previous day’s closing of 45,726 points, showing a decline of 204 points.

Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that last day of the rollover week saw market shedding 289 points during the session and closing the index -204 points.

Confirmation of amendment to the Income tax ordinance to take effect of withdrawal of Rs. 140 billion tax exemptions had bearing on Steel, Cement, Fertilizer, O&GMCs whereas banking sector stocks also went down due to overall selling pressure.

Key subjects of roll-over NETSOL, TRG also ended on a negative note with the exception of ATRL, which traded positively throughout the session. Among scrips, BYCO topped the volumes with 83.1 million shares, followed by PRL (56.2 million) and PTC (39.5 million).

Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (-93 points), Cement (-72 points, E&P (-46 points), O&GMCs (-15 points), Refinery (+26 points).

Volumes increased from 470.4 million shares to 529.2 million shares (+12 percent DoD). Average traded value, on the other hand, declined by 3 percent to reach US$ 162.9 million as against US$ 167 million.

Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include BYCO, PRL, PTC, UNITY and TRG, which formed 47 percent of total volumes.

Stocks that contributed positively to the index include ANL (+21 points), ATRL (+19 points), MEBL (+18 points), HMB (+15 points) and INDU (+12 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include HBL (-54 points), BAHL (-25 points), PSO (-24 points), UBL (-22 points) and LUCK (-22 points).