KARACHI: The stock market snapped its record-setting streak on Wedne­sday due to emerging economic concerns as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) attached a new condition for reaching a Staff-Level Agreement for a new loan.

Consequently, the benc­h­mark index fell below 80,000 due to aggressive profit-taking despite massive foreign buying.

Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corporation said stocks closed sharply lower on uncertainty over the resolution of $15 billion energy debt repayment to China and the IMF condition to abolish the Pakistan Sovereign Wealth Fund by Sept­ember 30 for transparency and accountability of profit-making state-owned enterprises after harsh tax measures in the federal budget FY25.

Topline Securities Ltd said profit-taking was witnessed in the PSX as investors chose to capitalise on the market’s strength. Pro­m­inent stocks such as Hub Power, Pakistan Petro­leum, Dawood Hercules, Millat Tractors, Habib Bank, and Bank Al-Habib led the negative momentum, collectively adding 362 points to the index’s downturn.

As a result, the benchmark index hit an intra-day high of 80,971.96 points and a low of 79,841.32. However, the index settled at 79,841.56 after losing 830.51 points or 0.71 per cent on a day-on-day basis.

However, the overall trading volume contracted 18.73pc to 495.91 million shares. The traded value also dipped 9.05pc to Rs22.11bn on a day-on-day basis. Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included K-Electric (57.71m shares), PIA Hold­ing Company (43.03m shar­es), Unity Foods (28.62m shares), WorldCall Telecom (20.10m shares) and Hum Network (18.55m shares).

The shares registering the most significant increa­ses in their share prices in absolute terms were Exide Pakistan (Rs71.17), PIA Holding Company (Rs63.20), Data Agro (Rs43.00), Sazgar Engine­ering Works Ltd (Rs40.64) and Nestle Pakistan (Rs39.47).

The companies registering significant decreases in their share prices in absolute terms were Unilever Foods (Rs178.83), Pakistan Tobacco (Rs46.03), ZIL Ltd (Rs22.85), Premium Tex­tile (Rs22.44) and Bata Pakistan (Rs19.05). Fore­ign investors remained net buyers as they purchased shares worth $2.40m.

Published in Dawn, July 11th, 2024