Daily Times

Karachi: Pakistan Equities achieved yet another historic milestone by hitting intra-day all time high of 40508.95 marks but failed to uphold the gains towards the end of the trading session on Tuesday. The KSE 100 index ended in red with the loss of 74.26 points to settle down at 40340.46 level following the profit taking.

Within ten minutes after a positive start, the benchmark KSE 100 index tumbled to test support near 40,150 level as savvy investors grabbed opportunity to lock in their stellar profits in recent out performers in third tier and penny plays, said report by Elixir Securities. Index names yet again saw limited institutional interest with Engro Corp attracting fresh flows near close of day while most volumes went through in penny and speculative stocks on retail investors activity, evident from steep volumes on KSE All Shares Index, the report added.

Volumes increased by 3 percent to a 11-year high of 903 million shares from previous 876 million shares. The trading value of the share jumped to Rs 20 billion from Rs 19 billion.

The engineering sector continued to attract investor sentiment and was in the limelight during today’s trading session, as International Steel (ISL) and Amreli Steel (ASTL) closed at their upper limits of 5 percent. Foreign selling continued for the fifth consecutive day with net selling of $4.9 million. This led to total month to date foreign selling of $32.3 million, report by Topline Securities said.

On volume leaders board, Dewan Salman contributed most to KSE 100 index with 70 million shares while hitting its lower and upper limit both during the day, followed by Pace Pakistan (59 million), Bank of Punjab (50 million), Azgard Nine (48 million), TRG Pakistan (39 million) and WorldCall Telecome (35 million).

Shares of 442 companies changed hands on Tuesday out of which 250 companies ended in red zone while 175 companies were in green zone.

About the future outlook of the share market, analysts expect volatility to increase as retail investors drive most action on the bourse while flows primarily from foreign institutions will guide direction in index names.

Local market is tracking the movements of global equity and financial markets. At international level global financial markets are looking at key risk events, with two major central banks, US Fed and Bank of Japan, announcing monetary policies today and an informal OPEC meeting next week.

“Expectations for a rate hike in September 2016 remain low (futures implied probability at 20 percent ), though FOMC is expected to take a hawkish tone for its December 2016 outlook. Of greater interest remains BoJ’s monetary review where the Bank is likely to continue with its easing program, though any stimulus lower than expected can strengthen the Yen further to weigh on the greenback, said a report by AKD Securities adding that with Russia and Iran on board, OPEC’s members are set to discuss an agreement on a possible production freeze; however with low expectations for the same oil prices are likely to remain volatile in the near term.

On the domestic front, the local bourse remains vulnerable to any knee jerk reaction in regional markets on account of any unexpected outcome from the aforementioned events. Moreover, emerging concerns on the political front with protest from PTI near the end of month and renewed cross-border tension can keep market participants cautious, AKD Securities observed.