Karachi, February 19, 2019: Pakistan Stock Exchange was remained under pressure on Tuesday barring an initial burst of positivity that added 100 points to the index.
During the day, the index went down by 278 points and breached 40,000 points level. Blue chips stayed low and selling pressure by end of session caused further pressure.
Major volumes were observed in Power, Cement, Chemical and Banking sectors. Sentiment drivers during the session were PM’s speech on Indian allegation on the recent attack, which was although positive in stance but stock prices showed investors’ concern.
End of the session, the Index closed at 39,957 points as against 40,220 points a day earlier showing a decline of 262 points (-0.7 percent DoD). Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (-72pts), E&P (-42pts), Fertilizer (-32pts), Tobacco (-26pts), Textile (-14pts).
Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corp. said that bearish activity witnessed at PSX on institutional profit taking after dismal data on FDI stood at $1.45 billion for Jul-Jan’19 falling by 17pc YoY and concerns over deteriorating Pak-India trade ties.
Cement and textile sector battered in the futures rollover week on trade disruption with India amid imposition of custom duty on Pak exports and likely retaliation on Indian product imports, he said.
He added that concerns over Instability in rupee dollar parity and dismal data on $409m foreign outflows for Jul-Jan’19 played a catalyst role in bearish close.
Volumes were declined from 99 million shares to 94 million shares (-5 percent DoD). Average traded value also declined by 19 percent to reach $ 2 million against $ 34 million.
Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include KEL, STPL, PAEL, PIBTL and PTC, which formed 32% of total volumes.
Stocks that contributed positively include LUCK (+14pts), MCB (+10pts), PSO (+8pts), SYS (+3pts), and ICI (+3pts). Stocks that contributed negatively include HBL (-41pts), PAKT (-26pts), SNGP (-18pts), UBL (-16pts) and MARI (-14pts).
