Daily Times

Pakistan Stock Exchange has continued its deprecating trend this week amid lack of stimulus and rally stream. Benchmark KSE-100 ended in a negative territory as volumes contract further, pushing index below the 43,000-mark.

The benchmark KSE-100 Index, which started the day at 43,212.59, lost 329.14 points to mark its intraday low at 42,877.90. It settled lower by 214.01 points at 42,993.03. The KMI-30 Index plunged 509.80 points to close at 70,144.36, while KSE All Share Index declined by 80.65 points, ending at 29,892.79. Out of the total traded shares, 109 advanced and 212 declined.

The overall market volumes contracted from 249.67 million in the previous session to 171.13 million while Market Cap decreased by Rs.21.89 Billion. Of the 92 traded companies in the KSE-100 Index 30 closed higher while 61 closed down, and 1 remained unchanged. Total volume traded for the index was 119.95 million shares.

The volume table was led by The Bank of Punjab followed by Maple Leaf Cement Factory Limited and TRG Pakistan Limited. The scripts had exchanged 19.65 million, 18.26 million and 9.26 million shares, respectively.

Sector wise, Oil & Gas Exploration Companies was the major loser, cropping 53 points off the index, followed by Power Generation & Distribution with 40 points, Fertilizer with 25 points. However sectors propping up the index include Tobacco with 13 points, Cement with 10 points, Insurance with 8 points, Automobile Parts & Accessories with 2 points and Real Estate Investment Trust with 2 points.

Among the companies the most points taken off the index was by Hub Power Company Limited which stripped the index of 35 points followed by Pakistan Petroleum Limited Pak with 27 points, Pakistan Services Limited with 23 points, Dawood Hercules Corporation Limited with 14 points and Pakistan Oilfields Limited with 12 points. While, most points added to the index was by Muslim Commercial Bank which contributed 18 points followed by Pakistan Tobacco Company Limited with 7 points, D.G. Khan Cement Company Limited with 7 points, Adamjee Insurance Company Limited with 7 points.

Meanwhile, Federal Minister for Planning Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar predicted the inflation would lower down to single digit by the end of this year, as compared to 12.6 percent recorded in December 2019. The minister said the decline in interest rate would help ease the policy rate, which would boost businesses investment opportunities. At the moment, the credit borrowing by the private sector has not increased much in the past six months, because of high interest rates, he added. He also urged to enhance cooperation between the public and private sectors. The federal government with help of the private sector would start mega projects in Karachi very soon, he revealed.

In Asia, The stock across the region recorded losses as major indexes plunged. Officials from the US and China are expected to sign the trade agreement o after the two countries last month agreed to the deal in principle, where Washington said it would cancel or reduce some tariffs in exchange for China purchasing more American products and addressing US concerns on areas of technology and financial services. The deal is expected to include a commitment from China to buy about $200 billion of US goods over two years, which includes about $80 billion in manufactured goods, $53 billion in energy, $32 billion in agriculture and $35 billion in services.

But, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the U.S will keep some tariffs in place till tge phase 2 deal. He added that a future “phase two” trade deal with Beijing would ease US tariffs on goods purchased from China even if the next agreements are segmented into multiple rounds. The feud between the globe’s two largest economies has resulted in each side slapping levies on billions of dollars’ worth of imports and forced major American corporations to shift supply chains throughout Asia.

The markets were speculating as investors awaited the details of the deal. In China the Shanghai composite declined 0.54% to close at 3,090.04, while the Shenzhen component was receded 0.22% to 1,814.21. In Japan Nikkei 225 fell 0.45% to 23,916.58 .In South Korea, the Kospi index slipped 0.35% to 2,230.98 while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 0.52% in its final hour of trade.

The regional and global markets are expected rebound in the following sessions after the details of the Phase on trade deal between US and China are revealed. The deal will be signed by the US president Donald Trump and Chinese Vice premier Liu He at the Washington House.