KARACHI: The stock market witnessed persistent selling pressure amid growing budget-related uncertainties, taking the benchmark KSE 100 index below 78,000 on Tuesday.

Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corporation said the market closed lower amid consolidation in the post-budget session. However, uncertainty about the IMF’s approval of new proposals to relax some tax measures before the approval of the federal budget 2024-25 also took its toll.

He added that foreign outflows, over-leveraging at PSX, and pressure in futures rollover contributed to the bearish close.

Topline Securities Ltd said the equity market experienced a mixed session. The fertiliser, foods, cement, and E&P sectors made positive contributions, with Engro Corporation, Unity Foods, Fatima Fertiliser, Lucky Cement, and Pakistan Oilfield collectively adding 129 points to the index. Conversely, MCB Bank, OGDC, and Hub Power attracted some selling pressure and lost 164 points.

As a result, the benchmark index hit an intraday high at 78,541.22 points and a low of 77,908.98. However, the index closed at 77,940.58 after losing 291.52 points or 0.37pc on a day-on-day basis.

The overall trading volume further fell by 24.14pc to 292.18 million shares. The traded value also plunged by 26.12pc to Rs11.41bn on a day-on-day basis.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included Pervez Ahmed Co (26.80m shares), K-Electric (17.90m shares), WorldCall Telecom (16.87m shares), Unity Foods (16.65m shares) and Pakistan Internation Bulk Terminal (13.68m shares).

The shares registering the most significant increases in their share prices in absolute terms were Unilever Foods (Rs71.43), Ismail Industries (Rs39.96), Pakistan Hotels Developers Ltd (Rs28.79), Bata Pakistan (Rs25.64) and Philip Morris (Rs23.61).

The companies registering significant decreases in their share prices in absolute terms were Sapphire Textile (Rs84.32), Rafhan Maize (Rs74.94), Nestle Pakistan (Rs39.65), Meh­mood Textile (Rs31.13) and JDW Sugar Mills (Rs25.78).

Foreign investors remained net sellers as they sold shares worth $0.60m.

Published in Dawn, June 26th, 2024