Daily Times

Pakistan equities closed another day in red on Tuesday, down 262 points to 39,957 points level.

An equity analyst at Elixir Research Muhammad Arbash said investors remained on the sidelines likely owing to review of Pakistan performance by FATF, geo-political noise and ongoing rollover week.

The benchmark KSE-100 index opened Tuesday’s trading session 22 points in the “green zone” where the index made a high of 101 points which brought in the index to a level of 40,320. However, Throughout the trading session volatility played its part as the index kept fluctuating, after making a high of 167 points selling pressure increased which caused the market go into the “red zone” where the index made a low of -277 points bringing the index down to a level of 40,000, this selling pressure could be explained as Pakistan’s position in the FATF is yet to be reviewed and more importantly because of the intense political tension between India and Pakistan over Pulwama incident, said an equity analyst at Trust Securities.

As such, Index heavyweights viz. Financials and Energy stocks mainly dragged the Index down with Habib Bank Limited HBL losing 2.16 percent, Bank Alfalah Limited (BAFL) losing 2.30 percent, United Bank Limited (UBL) losing 1.70 percent, Pakistan Oilfields Limited (POL) losing 0.91 percent and Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) losing 0.56 percent cumulatively contributing 98 points to the KSE100 Index decline.

Activity remained dull throughout the day with only 56 million shares exchanging hands in benchmark KSE100 Index. Volume charts were dominated by retail favorites with only Fauji Cement Limited (FCCL) and Maple Leaf Cement Limited (MLCF) making to the top volumes rankings from the cement sector.

Exploration and Productions (E&Ps) like OGDC (-0.3%), PPL (-0.4%) and POL (-0.9%) also closed in red after Arab Light prices started coming down from today’s high of USD 66.81/bbl. Arab light price closed at USD 66.57/bbl.

Published in Daily Times, February 20^th 2019.