Stocks eke out marginal gains amid political worries
KARACHI: Shares extended their overnight bearish trend on Thursday amid continuous uncertainty about macroeconomic indicators and rising political tension.
According to Topline Securities, negative sentiments controlled the bourse during the first trading hours, compelling the KSE-100 index to make an intraday low of 590 points or 1.38 per cent. However, value hunting began afterwards and helped the benchmark index close at a higher level.
The KSE-100 index settled at 42,898.44 points, up 35.29 points or 0.08pc from a day ago.
The trading volume decreased 16pc to 284.5 million shares while the traded value went down 18.2pc to $40.7m on a day-on-day basis.
Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included Treet Corporation Ltd (27.62m shares), TPL Properties Ltd (18.89m shares), Telecard Ltd (16.85m shares), WorldCall Telecom Ltd (16.44m shares) and Ghani Global Holdings Ltd (15.9m shares).
Sectors that contributed the highest number of points to the benchmark index included cement (56.32 points), chemical (25.57 points), refinery (15.93 points), oil and gas marketing (15.45 points) and technology and communication (14.91points).
Shares contributing most positively to the index included Engro Polymer and Chemicals Ltd (21.6 points), Pakistan State Oil Company Ltd (17.64 points), Lucky Cement Ltd (14.8 points), Pioneer Cement Ltd (11.63 points) and D.G. Khan Cement Company Ltd (10.96 points).
Stocks that contributed most negatively to the index included United Bank Ltd (26.36 points), Engro Fertilisers Ltd (17.42 points), Fauji Fertiliser Company Ltd (17.42 points), Engro Corporation Ltd (15.14 points) and Dawood Hercules Corporation Ltd (14.32 points).
Shares that registered the largest increases in percentage terms were Pioneer Cement Ltd (7.5pc), Unity Foods Ltd (4.14pc), Attock Refinery Ltd (3.95pc), Highnoon Laboratories Ltd (3.77pc) and Engro Polymer and Chemicals Ltd (3.61pc).
Foreign investors were net sellers as they offloaded shares worth $0.61m.
“Going forward, we recommend investors to avail any dips as a buying opportunity in cement, banking and energy exploration and production sectors,” said JS Global in a market note.
Published in Dawn, May 13th, 2022