Daily Times

KARACHI: Pakistan equities on Monday closed negative on first trading of Fiscal Year 2019 after witnessing extremely dull volumes.

The benchmark KSE-100 index shedding 176.85 points closed at 41734.0 points level as against previous day closing of 42136.52 points.

Major dent came from cements where rumors did rounds of Lucky Cement reducing cement retail prices by Rs 20/bag to curb the competition which pushed Lucky Cement down by 2.7 percent; other stocks from the sectors including DG Khan Cement (DGKC) losing 1.91 percent, Cherat Cement losing 5 percent and Kohat Cement losing 2.86 percent also closed in red. Apart from cements, autos and Exploration and Productions (E&Ps) also closed lower while financials closed nearly flat. Muhammad Arbash, an analyst at Elixir Securities expects market to remain weak and volatile as weak macros due to rise in inflation, fuel prices, ballooning twin deficits and dwindling reserves become a major hurdle for the market. That said, the recent one-month extension in Amnesty scheme can play some positive role. Traded volumes fell by 49 percent day-on-day (DoD) to 84.5 million shares as against 166 million shares traded in previous session, while value traded decreased by 42 percent to Rs 3.5 as against Rs 6.1 billion. Volume leaders were Pak Elektron with 8.8 million turnover where Siddiqsons with 6.2 million shares stood second and Unity Foods reminded thirds with 4.5 million shares traded.

In cement sector, Bestway Cement, Attock Cement, DG Khan Cement and Cherat Cement closed in red while Fauji Cement ad Fecto Cement managed to close in green. Mixed sentiment was seen in financials where Habib Bank Limited (HBL), Bank of Punjab, Askari ABnk Limited, and MCB Bank Limited closed in the green, while on the flip side Allied Bank Limited, Bank AL Habib Limited, Bank AL-flah Limited and JS Ban Limited closed in the red. Shares of 139 companies surged while shares of 186 companies went down amongst total 341 companies’ shares traded on Monday.

Published in Daily Times, July 3^rd 2018.