KSE-100 snaps five-day winning streak

• Concerns regarding monetary policy tightening force investors to remain cautious.
• AHL notes that technology sector remains in the limelight throughout the day as traders place bets on high-beta stocks.
• Sectors contributing to the performance include technology, refinery, chemical, leather and insurance.

KARACHI: After posting gains for five successive days, the benchmark KSE-100 index once again retreated to the negative zone on Wednesday, shedding around 80 points as investors booked profit in line with global market trends.

The trend reversal was attributed to world equity markets as investors continued to fret about the increasingly uncertain economic outlook.

On the domestic front, concerns regarding monetary policy tightening in the upcoming Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting — scheduled to be held on November 26 — forced the investors to trade cautiously.

In the morning, trading kicked off with a spike, however, the positive momentum could not be sustained and bears dragged the index back in the red.

The KSE-100 index oscillated between an intra-day high and low of 47,317.27 and 46,968.41 points, ending the volatile session on a bearish note. Selling pressure was seen in the technology, refinery and cement sectors.

At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index recorded a decrease of 80.48 points, or 0.17%, to settle at 47,032.44 points.

A report from Arif Habib Limited (AHL) noted that the market remained range-bound today due to concerns over monetary tightening and the resumption of a foreign selling spree.

“The technology sector remained in the limelight throughout the day as traders placed the bet on high-beta stocks to mark quick trading gains,” it said.

The report added that on the flip-side, institutional investors fetched for value hunting as buying was observed in exploration and production and banking stocks.

“In the last trading hour, investors opted for profit booking especially in cement and steel stocks in expectation of interest rate hike by the central bank in the upcoming monetary policy.”

Sectors contributing to the performance included technology (+193 points), refinery (+22 points), chemical (+19 points), leather (+12 points) and insurance (+7 points).

During the session, shares of 366 listed companies were traded. At the end of the session, 182 stocks closed in the green, 163 in the red, and 21 remained unchanged.

Overall trading volumes rose to 380.6 million shares compared with Tuesday’s tally of 306.24 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs15.5 billion.

Pakistan Telecommunication Limited was the volume leader with 22.7 million shares, gaining Rs0.94 to close at Rs10.18. It was followed by Hascol Petroleum with 17.3 million shares, gaining Rs0.21 to close at Rs17.3, and WorldCall Telecom with 16.3 million shares, gaining Rs0.02 to close at Rs2.44.