RECORDER REPORT

KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed another volatile trading session on the first trading day of the week amid selling pressure across multiple sectors.

The KSE-100 Index dropped by 881.55 points, or 0.74 percent, settling at 118,221 points on Monday compared to 119,102.67 points on Friday. During intraday trading, the KSE-100 Index also touched an intraday low of 952 points; however, some recovery was witnessed by the end of the session.

On Monday, BRIndex100 ended at 12,661.88 points, which was 77.18 points or 0.61 percent lower than the previous close with the total volume of 541.947 million shares. BRIndex30 decreased by 146.66 points or 0.39 percent to settle at 37,359.26 points with the total share trading volume of 438.783 million.

Analysts at AHL said PSX witnessed more downside at the start of the week with the benchmark KSE-100 falling towards 118,000 points. They argue that the KSE-100 Index is declining in support of the large price gap from where upside is expected to resume and breach 120,000 points.

Trading activity saw a notable uptick, with the ready market turnover surged to 635.535 million shares on Monday from 338.003 million shares in the previous session. The value of shares traded also slightly increased from Rs 18.511 billion to Rs 18.576 billion. The overall market capitalization declined by Rs 60 billion to Rs 14.325 trillion on Monday, compared to Rs 14.385 trillion on Friday. Out of the 467 actively traded companies, the share value of 188 companies increased, while that of 325 companies decreased, and 44 companies’ share values remained unchanged.

Selling pressure was seen in key sectors including automobile assemblers, oil and gas exploration companies, OMCs and power generation. Index-heavy stocks including HUBCO, OGDC, PPL, POL, MARI, PSO and SSGC traded in the red.

Among the most notable traded companies, K-Electric Ltd. ranked first with 246.932 million shares closing at Rs 5.72, followed by WorldCall Telecom, of which 36.72 million shares were traded and it closed at Rs 1.27. Telecard Limited ranked third and closed at Rs 8.22 with 30.01million shares turnover.

PIA Holding Company LimitedB again recorded the highest gains increase by Rs 2,006.32 and closed at a new high of Rs 22,069.53 followed by Khyber Textile Mills Limited whose share price value closed at Rs 2,096.70, up by Rs 190.61. Moreover, Rafhan Maize Products Company Limited and Sazgar Engineering Works Limited faced notable losses with share values decreased by Rs 72.36 and Rs 36.29 respectively to close at Rs 10,755.23 and Rs 1,216.17.

Meanwhile, BR Automobile Assembler Index closed at 21,502.27 points with a net negative change of 221.06 points or 1.02 percent with total turnover remaining 2.5139 million shares. BR Cement Index lost 79 points or 0.79 percent to settle at 9,906.17 points with a total turnover of 17.189 million.

BR Commercial Banks Index closed at 34,678.59 points down by 233.05 points or 0.67 percent with a total turnover of 14.67 million shares. On the other hand, BR Power Generation and Distribution Index ended at 20,063.36 points with a positive change of only 118.74 points or 0.6 percent with total turnover of 250.261 million shares.

BR Oil & Gas Index closed at 11,411.99 points with a net negative change of 165.86 points or 1.43 percent on 25.706 million shares turnover. While BR Technology & Communication Index finished at 4,957.64 points marking a negative change of 64.25 points or 1.28 percent, with total turnover of 110.611 million shares.

Analysts from Topline sales desk cited that the continued bearish trend is primarily driven by concerns over the delay in the federal budget announcement and the lack of clarity regarding the IMF conditions tied to it. In the absence of positive triggers, investors chose to trim their positions and adopt a cautious stance.