KARACHI: Share prices rose initially on Monday, but pessimism soon overpowered the bulls and drove down the representative index of the Pakistan Stock Exchange.
Arif Habib Ltd said a lack of investors’ involvement pushed the index into the red territory soon after the opening bell rang. Trading remained subdued for the rest of the session with prices swinging in both directions before closing on the lower side.
Investors chose to stay on the sidelines owing to the expectation about a policy rate hike in the Monetary Policy Committee’s meeting scheduled for Tuesday. Volumes on the mainboard dried up with third-tier companies dominating shares trading.
As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 39,889.90 points, down 110.93 points or 0.28 pr cent from the preceding session.
The overall trading volume decreased 33.7pc to 74.4 million shares. The traded value went down 55.5pc to $6.2m on a day-on-day basis.
Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included Telecard Ltd (17.8m shares), WorldCall Telecom Ltd (3.7m shares), Pak Elektron Ltd (3.5m shares), the Bank of Punjab Ltd (3.5m shares) and Pakistan International Bulk Terminal Ltd (3.4m shares).
Sectors contributing negatively to the index performance were cement (46 points), fertiliser (28.2 points), commercial banking (27.4 points), oil marketing (21.1 points) and automobile assembling (19.3 points).
Companies registering the biggest increases in their share prices in absolute terms were Unilever Pakistan Foods Ltd (Rs100), Sapphire Textile Mills Ltd (Rs63.29), Khyber Textile Mills Ltd (Rs32.04), the Thal Industries Corporation Ltd (Rs19.84) and JDW Sugar Mills Ltd (Rs19).
Companies that recorded the biggest declines in their share prices in absolute terms were Bhanero Textile Mills Ltd (Rs50), Pakistan Tobacco Company Ltd (Rs48.90), Philip Morris Pakistan Ltd (Rs31.43), Shield Corporation Ltd (Rs20.57) and Bata Pakistan Ltd (Rs18.68).
Foreign investors were net buyers as they purchased shares worth $0.99m.
