KARACHI: Stock prices swung downwards on Tuesday as investors expected an interest rate hike at the Monetary Policy Committee’s meeting scheduled to take place in the afternoon.
Arif Habib Ltd said investors’ participation also remained low due to the Supreme Court’s decision about the provincial elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
However, investors showed confidence and chose to add value to their portfolios in the final trading hours following the announcement of the interest rate decision. “Going forward, we recommend that investors stay cautious and wait for dips to build positions in value stocks only,” said JS Global.
As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 39,687.26 points, down 202.64 points or 0.51 per cent from the preceding session.
The overall trading volume increased 11.9pc to 83.3 million shares. The traded value went up 24pc to $7.6m on a day-on-day basis.
Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included Telecard Ltd (10.9m shares), Pakistan Petroleum Ltd (6.7m shares), Hascol Petroleum Ltd (5.8m shares), WorldCall Telecom Ltd (5.6m shares) and the Bank of Punjab Ltd (3.6m shares).
Sectors contributing negatively to the index performance were exploration and production (72 points), commercial banking (31.8 points), investment banking (19.4 points), power generation and distribution (21.1 points) and fertiliser (12.2 points).
Companies registering the biggest increases in their share prices in absolute terms were Nestle Pakistan Ltd (Rs97.50), Khyber Textile Mills Ltd (Rs34.44), Premium Textile Mills Ltd (Rs31.17), Al-Abbas Sugar Mills Ltd (Rs384.69) and Pakistan Services Ltd (Rs16.91).
Companies that recorded the biggest declines in their share prices in absolute terms were Sapphire Fibres Ltd (Rs75.68), Bhanero Textile Mills Ltd (Rs74.75), Bata Pakistan Ltd (Rs31.50), Philip Morris Pakistan Ltd (Rs23.99) and Sitara Chemical Industries Ltd (Rs17).
Foreign investors were net buyers as they purchased shares worth $0.93m.
