PSX closes week on a negative note

• News of the upcoming mini-budget play on investors’ minds and they resort to offloading their stockholdings.
• Benchmark KSE-100 index sheds 148.52 points to close at 44,118.39 points.
• Shares of 353 companies were traded during the session.

The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed the week on a negative note as the bears and bulls locked horns to take charge of the bourse.

The news of the upcoming mini-budget played on investors’ minds and they resorted to offloading their stockholdings ahead of the introduction of stringent measures for resuming the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) $6 billion loan programme.

The benchmark KSE-100 index opened on a positive note, however, the market failed to sustain the bullish momentum and dropped. Selling pressure intensified in the second half of the session.

Today, the benchmark KSE-100 index shed 148.52 points, or 0.34%, to close at 44,118.39 points.

A report from Arif Habib Limited noted that the battle between bulls and bears was conquered by the bears in the last trading hour.

“The market opened with a positive momentum as SBP conducted another open market operation (OMO) for 63 days,” the report said, adding that optimistic approach faded away due to concerns of investors towards higher inflation and dip in total liquid foreign exchange reserves held by the SBP mainly due to external debt repayment.

The brokerage house added that the activity continued to remain side-ways as the market witnessed hefty volumes in the third tier stocks.

On the flip-side, in the second session institutional buyers started fetching value stocks due to attractive multiples.

Sectors contributing to the performance included technology and communication (-60 points), chemical (-36 points), cement (-25 points) oil and gas exploration companies (-17 points) and textile (-9 points).

Shares of 353 companies were traded during the session. At the close of trading, 136 scrips closed in the green, 194 in the red, and 23 remained unchanged.

Overall trading volumes fell to 223.37 million shares compared with Thursday’s tally of 240.4 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs7.33 billion.

Unity Foods (R) was the volume leader with 33.5 million shares traded, gaining Rs0.64 to close at Rs1.79. It was followed by Hum Network with 24.16 million shares traded, losing Rs0.22 to close at Rs6.TRG Pakistan with 20.58 million shares traded, losing Rs5.95 to close at Rs118.40.