Daily Times

Pakistan equities shed 350 points on Monday closing down at 40,900 points level amidst dull trading session. While the day kicked off on a positive note setting an intra-day high of 41,533, later caved into selling pressure in Index heavy weights. The benchmark index moved between an intraday high of +213 to a low of -421 points to finally close at a level of 41,004, down 316 points from last trading session.

Cements were the major laggards with Lucky Cement losing 3.75 percent while DG Khan Cement losing 5 percent traded at its lower price limit. Steels also took the brunt of selling with International Steel losing 4.15 percent, and Mughal Steels losing 2.89 percent. Volumes were extremely bleak, standing at 99 million shares, recorded lowest this month with most of the activity witnessed in stocks having future contracts. Volume chart was ruled by the retail plays i.e. Lotte Chemical Pakistan, K-Electric, Unity Foods and TRG Pakistan.

On the result front, Sazgar Engineering Works announced its FY18 result positing an EPS of Rs 8.62. “With future counter roll over in progress, a lackluster activity could prevail for rest of the week”, said Muhammad Arbash, an analyst at Elixir Research. On the economic front clarity came after Minister for Foreign Affairs Shah Mehmood Qureshi has said that Pakistan had not demanded financial assistance from Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates rather Islamabad sought investment in different sectors.

Negative trend was witnessed in the auto sector on back of the news that The Finance Minister, Asad Umar, says he’s ready to reconsider the budget proposal of lifting ban on the non-filers of tax returns wishing to purchase property and new cars. Honda Atlas Cars losing 5 percent and Indus Motor Company losing 2.70 percent closed in the red trajectory. Mixed sentiment were witnessed in the banking space where Allied ABnk Limited losing 0.39 percent, United Bank Limited losing 0.15 percent and National Bank of Pakistan losing 0.14 percent closed in the red whereas on the flip side HAbuiba Bank limited gaining 1.21 percent and MCB gaining 0.34 percent closed in the green zone.

Published in Daily Times, September 25^th 2018.