Daily Times

Negativity prevailed at the local bourse on Thursday as the KSE 100 Index lost 320 points to close at 33,971 level.

During the trading session, the market made an intraday high of +125 points versus intraday low of -717 points.

An equity analyst at IIS Securities said KSE 100 Index remained negative throughout the session to touch the intraday low of 33,574.85 level, but recovered a bit by the end as value hunters kicked in. The negative sentiment was driven by currency which depreciated 3.6 percent during the day to close at Rs 146.52 per dollar.

SBP announced the date for monetary policy statement bringing it forward to May 20 ahead of the PIB and MTB auction.

Volumes remained subdued as 109 million shares changed hands during the day.

K-Electric (-5.2%) and PIBTL (-8%) led the volumes with more than 21 million shares changing hands.

Pressure was witnessed after the Pakistani rupee declined against US dollar in the interbank market as it traded at Rs147. The rupee saw a four percent decline of Rs5.61 during the day’s trade.

Major laggards of Thursday’s trading session were HBL (-2.0%), LUCK (-2.5%), PSO (-3.7%), EFERT (-2.1%) and MCB (-1.4%). Selling pressure was witnessed in the cement sector were big players DGKC (-5%), CHCC (-5%), MLCF (-5%) and PIOC (-5%) closed limit down. HBL (-2.0%), MCB (-1.4%) and UBL (-1.1%) from the banking space closed in the red. POL (+5%) and PPL (+2.1%) from the E&P sector closed in the green zone on back of anticipation of potential discovery in

Maaz Mulla, an equity analyst, expects bearish sentiments in the market to continue on the back of concerning economic indicators. Hence, he recommends investors to remain cautious in trading.