Daily Times

Stocks extended losses for the third consecutive session on Wednesday, as market activity remains dull owing to the last roll-over week of the fiscal year 21, ramping up selling pressure at Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX).

On Wednesday the benchmark KSE-100 index witnessed a range bound trading session and settled at 47,900 level after posting an 86.44 points loss. The index traded in a range of 269.84 points or 0.56 percent of the previous close,showing an intraday high of 48,134.95 and a low of 47,865.11.

The market opened on a positive note as investors took positive cues from the finance minister, who showed his interest to include a 10-years income tax holiday for refineries in the Finance Bill. However, due to continuous selling pressure, the benchmark KSE-100 index, after swaying in both directions, closed the session in the red.

Irfan Saeed, Senior Vice President, BMA Capital Management, said that Market witnessed a dull trading session with a narrow range activity of 260 points primarily due to the budget uncertainty, but noted that the recent sell-off has been triggered by the last roll-over week of the financial year 2021, as future contracts are to be settled or rolled over, with the investors’ anxiety and uncertainty stemming from the nail-biting process to see if the task is successfully accomplished.However, Mr Saeed said, since its the last roll-over week of the fiscal year, investors primarily Mutual Funds, brokers and companies are liquidating their leveraged positions to close their financial books by the june closing.

Investors’ sentiments also dwindled over uncertainty over the upcoming Financial Action Task Force (FATF) report, scheduled to be released on June 25,- as the ongoing FATF plenary at Paris will review Pakistan’s progress made to curb AML/CFT activities and decide whether the country remains on the ‘grey list’ or not.

During the session Market Capital increased by Rs.1.64 Billion, while total value traded also increased by 3.13 Billion to Rs.18.65 Billion.

The volume at kse-100 recovered from 209.25 million shares recorded in the previous session to 237.2 million shares, while the volume at all shares index surged from 610 million shares to 619 million shares.

At kse-100 the volume chart was led by Silk Bank Limited followed by WorldCall Telecom Limited and TPL corp Limited. The scrips exchanged 52.28 million, 41.58 million and 33.93 million shares.

As per the National Clearing Company of Pakistan limited (NCCPL) foreign investors were net buyers of worth $0.31 million worth of shares.

Among local iIndividuals, Insurance Companies and Brokers led the selling chart, which offloaded $3.4 million, $0.96 million, $0.18 million worth of equities.

However, Companies, Banks and Mutual Funds led the buying chart and mopped up about $1.6 million, $1.3 million and $1.17 million worth of equities.

During the session, sectors which dented the index were Commercial Banks with 37 points, Cement with 34 points, Technology & Communication with 21 points, Oil & Gas Marketing Companies with 19 points and Investment Banks with 10 points.

Among the scrips, the most points taken off the index was by Unity foods which stripped the index of 21 points followed by Lucky Cement with 21 points, TRG Pakistan with 16 points, Habib Bank Limited with 13 points and Pakistan State Oil with 11 points.

However, sectors that lifted the index were Fertilizer with 25 points, Automobile Assembler with 13 points, Refinery with 13 points, Oil & Gas Exploration Companies with 10 points and Power Generation & Distribution with 4 points.

Among the scrips, the most points added to the index was by Engro Fertilizers Limited which contributed 14 points followed by FrieslandCampina Engro Pakistan Limited with 11 points, Oil & Gas Development Company Limited with 10 points, Millat Tractors Limited with 8 points and National Refinery Limited with 7 points.