Daily Times

KARACHI: Pakistan equities on Monday carried the bearish momentum with benchmark KSE-100 Index breaking the 41,000 level, and closing a stone’s throw away from 2018 lows of 40,711. KSE Index plunged by 1.58 percent or 659.15 points to close at 40978.23 points.

Index traded in a positive zone for the first ninety minutes but later witnessed a sharp plunge on aggressive selling reportedly by few local asset managers, while foreigners selling also continued unabated with index heavy Financials and Cements bearing most of the brunt.

Moreover, Oil & Gas regulator’s proposal of hiking the gas prices also hit the market hard as higher tariffs shall have negative implications for manufacturing sectors like Cements -that lost 4.3 percent value, textiles lost 3.4 percent and chemicals -plummeted by 2.1 percent, apart from having a spillover impact on demand and inflation. Even the Oil & Gas Exploration Sector that fell by 1.7 percent was not spared despite 4 percent rise in international crude oil prices over the weekend, post the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) meeting.

Elixir Securities’ analyst Ali Raza expect weakness to persist and volatile trading in the near-term with investors keeping a close watch on ongoing Financial Action Task Force (FATF) meeting which will decide the fate of “Grey-Listing” Pakistan. The ongoing Amnesty Scheme remains the key trigger – News reports suggest of hefty domestic asset declaration that we believe can beef up capital markets liquidity going forward, he added.

Published in Daily Times, June 26^th 2018.