KARACHI: Following a bloodbath on the trading floor a day ago, investors resorted to value-hunting on Wednesday in what analysts called a recovery session.
Topline Securities Ltd said trading activity could be divided in two halves with the first part exhibiting a continuation of the selling spree from the previous day. However, the second part of the trading session provided investors with some relief. Courageous value-hunters cherry-picked stocks, helping the KSE-100 index gain some of the earlier lost ground.
The chief reasons for the index closing on the lower side on Wednesday remained the same as before: continuous profit-taking and deleveraging of equity positions by investors ahead of the end of the calendar year. Analysts said attractive valuation of blue-chip stocks could not keep value-hunters at bay, which resulted in buying interest at the day’s low.
As a result, the KSE-100 index closed at 62,448.01 points after losing 385 points or 0.61 per cent from the preceding session.
The overall trading volume decreased 21.6pc to 1.2 billion shares. The traded value decreased 10.5pc to Rs26bn on a day-on-day basis.
Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included K-Electric Ltd (280.8m shares), WorldCall Telecom Ltd (211.1m shares), Cynergyico PK Ltd (54.4m shares), the Bank of Punjab Ltd (53.7m shares) and Hascol Petroleum Ltd (35.9m shares).
Companies registering the biggest increases in their share prices in absolute terms were Unilever Pakistan Foods Ltd (Rs249), Mari Petroleum Company Ltd (Rs52.11), Premium Textile Mills Ltd (Rs16.78), Packages Ltd (Rs10.80) and Atlas Honda Ltd (Rs8.99).
Companies registering the biggest decreases in their share prices in absolute terms were Rafhan Maize Products Company Ltd (Rs100), Hoechst Pakistan Ltd (Rs93), Pakistan Services Ltd (Rs73.63), Reliance Cotton Spinning Mills Ltd (Rs41.83) and Mehmood Textile Mills Ltd (Rs39.37).
Foreign investors were net sellers for the first time since November 8 as they offloaded shares worth $2.71m.
Published in Dawn, December 21st, 2023
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