Daily Times

KARACHI: Pakistan equities took a breather after four-straight session of gains and settled below 50,000 on across-the-board profit-taking. The KSE-100 index declined by 327 points to close at 49,785 level.

Market opened and traded positive for a brief period as morning gains led KSE100 Index to test 50,300 level. Index couldn’t sustain gains for long and steadily declined to test support at 49,500 level as investors understandably took advantage of recent highs and booked profits in the wider market.

Pak Suzuki continued its winning streak, opening at upper price limit for second consecutive session on recent announcement of another taxi scheme. Moreover, the earnings announced by PSMC near market close also beat expectations by wide margin. Hub Power, Engro Corp and Pakistan Petroleum emerged as top three laggards of the day, all cumulatively contributing nearly half of points to Index decline, analysts at Elixir Securities commented.

Autos were the stand out performers today with the sector adding 53 points to the index, on the back of outstanding earning results. PSMC announced higher than anticipated EPS of Rs15.9, up 38% YoY in 1Q2017 which led the stock to close at its upper limit.

SNGP posted earnings of Rs 2.5bn (EPS Rs3.9) in 3QFY17 up from Rs217 million (EPS Rs0.3) in 3QFY16, driven by higher capex and operating profits.

Volumes declined by 5 percent to 381 million shares while traded value was down 15 percent to Rs 19 billion/$181 million.

On Tuesday shares of 394 companies were traded at the bourse of which 138 ended in green while 239 closed in red and only 17 remained unchanged.

According to analysts the market is entering in a consolidation phase and range-bound trading in near term is expected where 50,000 level will likely provide immediate resistance to KSE 100 Index. Ongoing results season however will keep investor interest intact in the wider market.