Daily Times

Pakistan equities closed Thursday in red with benchmark KSE-100 Index settling below 42,350 points level where the index made an intraday low and high of -524 points & +166 points, respectively.

Market opened positive and traded sideways in initial hour, however strong selling in Financials dented the sentiment after United Bank limited (UBL) announced poor half year result due to loan provision and a surprise Rs 2 billion charge pertaining to the pensions fund while Habib Bank limited (HBL) losing 5 percent value hit lower price limit after declaring earnings lower than street estimates.

Meanwhile, Engro Polymer & Chemical (EPCL) gaining 1 percent ruled the volumes chart after announcing its admirable result of First Half 2018.

“We expect market to remain in range bound trajectory with investors keeping an eye on flows from Local and Foreign Institutions while earnings season will keep investors interest in wider market alive”, said Murtaza Jafar, an analyst at Elixir Securities.

On the economic front, Power sector circular debt soared to Rs 566 billion. Moreover, CPI hitting a 4-year high at 5.8 percent in July 2018, turned out to be negative sentiment for the local bourse.

Key sectors including cements and Exploration and Productions (E&Ps) saw respite at bottom.

UBL announced 1H2018 EPS at Rs5.06 (consolidated) down 53 percent YoY with an interim DPS of Rs3; taking cumulative first half DPS to Rs6. HBL reported 1H2018 consolidated EPS at Rs5.42 down 49 percent YoY with 10 percent interim cash dividend, taking cumulative first half DPS to Rs2.

Major heavyweights including, HBL, PPL, OGDC, ENGRO, MCB, UBL, LUCK and POL cumulatively contributed -389 points. Traded volumes slightly improved by 2 percent day-on-day (DoD) to 284 million shares while value traded increased to $ 92 million.

Top volume stocks were EPCL, UNITY Foods, PIBTL, Pak Elektron and TRG.

An equity analyst Maaz Mulla expects market to remain range bound, until the newly elected Prime Minister and his new government takes oath, with flows from local and foreign institutions directing the market. We recommend investors to accumulate value stocks on dips.

Published in Daily Times, August 3^rd 2018.