Karachi, April 16, 2020: Market traded in a narrow range today between +205 points and -226 points, and closing the session +87 points. Yesterday’s PIB auction that resulted in normalization of yield curve and declining of yields gave good reasons for investors to come back to equities.
However, weakening oil fundamentals kept the investors in limbo on whether to book profit or take new positions. Similar to yesterday’s performance, Fertilizer sector maintained the momentum with further support from Cement and E&P sectors. Banking sector, on the other hand, faced selling pressure, bearing the brunt from foreign investors in past couple of sessions.
Cement sector managed to post some recovery today and maintained top position in trading volumes with 34.6 million shares, followed by Chemical (12.9 million) and Vanaspati (10.9 million). Among scrips, MLCF topped the volumes with 14.8 million shares, followed by UNITY (10.9 million) and HASCOL (7.2 million).
The Index closed at 31,330 points as against 31,242 points showing an increase of 87 points (+0.3 percent DoD). Sectors contributing to the performance include E&P (+39 points), Tobacco (+31 points), Pharma (+25 points), Inv Banks (+23 points), Power (+16 points), Banks (-57 points) and Insurance (-12 points).
Volumes declined from 185.6 million shares to 119.1 million shares (-36 percent DoD). Average traded value also declined by 36 percent to reach US$ 28.5 million as against US$ 44.8 million.
Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include MLCF, UNITY, HASCOL, EPCL and PIOC, which formed 36 percent of total volumes.
Stocks that contributed positively to the index include PAKT (+24 points), DAWH (24 points), OGDC (+18 points), FFC (+17 points) and COLG (+15 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include MCB (-23 points), HBL (-20 points), LUCK (-11 points), UBL (-11 points), and EFERT (-11 points).
