KARACHI: Stocks ended flat and on Friday as bears rule over the bulls during the day due to alarming current account deficit.
The benchmark KSE-100 index of the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 43,233 points as against the previous day’s close of 43,234 points.
Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the bears ruled over the bulls today due to concerns over an alarming number of current account deficit, devaluation of Pak rupee, and a big jump in cut-off yields of treasury bills indicating a hawkish stance in the upcoming monetary policy.
Yesterday, a sharp downfall in the market occurred due to a sell-off by mutual funds which eventually created an attractive opportunity for value hunters.
The market opened on a positive note as value hunters did aggressive buying in the first session.
In the second session, across the board selling was witnessed as PKR closed at an all-time low of 176.77, down 0.2 per cent DoD.
Moving forward, the analysts expect the market to remain volatile and recommend a cautious approach.
Sectors contributing to the performance include Cement (-180 points), Technology (-63 points), Engineering (-35 points), Textile Composite (-31 points) and Refinery (-25 points).
Volumes decreased from 386.8 million shares to 287.7 million shares (25.6 per cent DoD). Traded value also decreased by 26.9 per cent to reach US$ 58.1 million as against US$ 79.6 million.
Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include WTL, TPLP, BYCO, UNITY and TRG.
