Daily Times

KARACHI: Pakistan equities closed flat on the first day of the rollover week despite of the approval of FY19 budget by the parliament on Friday. The benchmark KSE-100 index made an intra-day high of 289 points and an intra-day low of 32 points to close at 41,649 by gaining 25 points.

Market opened positive as institutional participation was witnessed mainly in the main board stocks. Overall volumes stood at 88 million shares, while traded value stood at $32 million.

Investors remained concerned as government has not yet disclosed any concrete plan to address mounting current account deficit numbers, that has swelled to $14 billion in 10MFY18 as compared to $9.3 billion last year.

Investors showed interest in small cap stocks, that led volumes to grow by 7%. However, value dropped by 14%. Engro Polymers (EPCL) closed near its lower lock as company declared right shares of 37% at Rs22 per share in last session. Among scrips Fauji Cement (FCCL) Pak Elektron (PAEL) and EPCL topped the table in terms of volume with cumulative trading volume of 18 million shares.

Sector wise data indicate that Commercial Banks and Chemicals remained top volume leaders with cumulative trading volume of 24 million shares.

Commercial banks led the positivity where big banks such as HBL (+2.27%), NBP (+0.49%) and UBL (+1.49%) gained to close higher than their previous day close. Investor interest was seen in the cement sector as it close (+0.2%) higher, where FCCL (+1.23%), MLCF (+1.53%), DGKC (+0.89%) and LUCK (+0.46%) closed in the green zone. E&P remained under pressure where POL (-1.23%) and OGDC (-0.84%) closed in the red zone despite oil prices edging higher in the international market.

Analysts expect that the market will exhibit volatility in the coming sessions due to overall political ambiguities and lack of positive triggers in the market.

Published in Daily Times, May 22^nd 2018.