Daily Times

Directionlessness played on the market sentiments on Monday, as the KSE-100 index kicked off the first trading session of the week on a bearish note, with contracting market volumes.

The index clocked at 47,447 level after posting 116 points loss, as it traded in a range of 306.76 points or 0.64 percent of previous close, showing an intraday high of 47,715.28 and a low of 47,408.52.

The market witnessed choppy behavior, owing to a surge in Covid positivity ratio as it crossed 3.9% which risks a fresh round of lockdown being imposed by the government. Moreover,rising uncertainty in the Afghanistan region where the Taliban claim to control 85% of the territory which also took a toll on investors’ sentiment.

However, Market Cap decreased by Rs.21.09 Billion, owing to dwindling volume as investors have been treading cautiously owing to the issues pertaining to the NCCPL ‘s CGT calculation, which disrupted the investors’ payables, since most of them booked losses in June to net off gains, however the NCCPL deducted the CGT for the 11 months i.e till May 21.

The volume at kse-100 locked in at 107.6 million shares, while the all-share index recorded a volume of 474 million shares.

At kse-100 the volume chart was led by Worldcall Telecom Limited followed by Treet Corporation Limited and TPL corp Limited followed. The scrips exchanged 70.991 million, 63.61 million and 27.38 million shares.

As per the National Clearing Company of Pakistan limited (NCCPL) foreign investors were net buyers of worth $1.2 million worth of shares.

Among local investors Brokers and Individuals led the selling chart, which offloaded $2.38 million and $1.4 million worth of equities.

Whereas, Insurance Companies and Banks led the buying chart, and mopped up $2.05 million, $1.28 million worth of equities.

During the session, sectors which dented the index were Cement with 38 points, Technology & Communication with 23 points, Power Generation & Distribution with 15 points, Commercial Banks with 11 points and Oil & Gas Marketing Companies with 10 points.

Among the scrips, the most points taken off the index was by TRG Pakistan which stripped the index of 17 points followed by Lucky Cement with 17 points, Bank Al Habib Limited with 16 points, NESTLE with 11 points and
Cherat Cement Company Limited with 11 points.

However, sectors which lifted the index were Tobacco with 13 points, Investment Banks with 13 points, Food & Personal Care Products with 9 points, Textile Spinning with 3 points and Textile Composite with 2 points.

Among the scrips, the most points added to the index was by Unity foods which contributed 20 points followed by PSX with 20 points, Muslim Commercial Bank with 14 points, Pak Tobacco Company Limited with 13 points and Habib Bank Limited with 6 points.