KARACHI: Pakistani shares experienced selling pressure on Monday as uncertainty surrounding the upcoming budgetary meas­ures caused the benchmark KSE 100 index to turn red despite an initially positive start amid low volume.

Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corporation said the market turned bearish on reports that the huge Rs12.5 trillion proposed tax collection target for FY25 would impact industrial earnings.

He added that market sentiments were also negatively affected by over-leveraging and uncertainty regarding the outcome of negotiations to repay dues to Chinese IPPs.

Topline Securities Ltd said investors opted to trim their positions, causing the market to settle below 76,000 levels after an intraday high at 76,188, a gain of 204 points during the day. A relatively lacklustre momentum was witnessed during the session, fuelled by budgetary concerns and mixed IMF vibes.

Consequently, the fertiliser, banks, and E&P sectors contributed negatively, with Fauji Fertiliser, MCB Bank, Pakistan Petroleum Ltd, OGDC and Bank Alfalah losing 251 points. On the contrary, Faysal Bank, HBL, and Systems Ltd cumulatively added 93 points. As a result, the KSE 100 index settled at 75,517.49 points after tumbling by 465.55 points or 0.61pc on a day-on-day basis.

However, the overall trading volume fell 26.85pc to 446.07 million shares and the traded value plunged by 30.42pc to Rs16.40bn day-on-day.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included K-Electric Ltd (55.59m shares), Symmetry Group Ltd (40.66m shares), WorldCall Telecom (29.46m shares), Dewan Cement (18.97m shares) and Hum Network (18.61m shares).

The shares registering the most significant incre­ases in their share prices in absolute terms were Exide Pakistan Ltd (Rs37.66), Pakistan Services Ltd (Rs24.59), Services Indu­stries Ltd (Rs24.14), Honda Atlas Cars (Pakistan) Ltd (Rs17.19) and Atlas Battery Ltd (Rs15.53).

The companies registering the major decreases in their share prices in absolute terms were Shahmurad Sugar Mills Ltd (Rs45.43), Murree Brewery Company Ltd (Rs13.21), Ferozsons Laboratories Ltd (Rs13.15), Lucky Core Industries (Rs12.63) and JDW Sugar Mills Ltd (Rs10.00).

Foreign investors turned net buyers as they bought shares worth $2.17m.

Published in Dawn, May 28th, 2024