Pakistan equity market witnesses lacklustre activity on pre-budget uncertainty

Pakistan equity market witnesses lacklustre activity on pre-budget uncertainty

Latifur Rehman
June 8, 2022

Pakistan equity market witnesses lacklustre activity on pre-budget uncertainty

KARACHI: The Pakistan equity market closed flat on Wednesday amid thin trade on pre-budget uncertainty and World Bank projection of moderate growth rate of 4 per cent for fiscal year 2023.

Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp said that mid-session support was witnessed in the market due to rupee recovery against the dollar in the interbank.

“Reports on falling cement dispatches by 15.85 per cent in May 2022 and record Rs7.25 trillion tax target set for the federal budget to resume the International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout programme played a catalyst role in negative close,” he added.

The Pakistan Stock Exchange KSE-100 shares Index shed 0.04 per cent, or 15.25 points, to close at 41,553.16 points. The KSE-30 shares Index gained 0.17 per cent, or 27.46 points, to close at 15,876.86 points.

An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the market continued to remain under pressure throughout the day due to concerns regarding adverse upcoming budget and mounting inflation.

“The benchmark KSE-100 Index witnessed a volatile session where investors opted to remain sideways as lackluster volume was witnessed in the main board stocks while hefty volumes were observed in third tier stocks,” he added.

“The banking sector stayed in the red zone due to the expectation of higher tax and increase in other taxes in the upcoming budget,” he said.

As many as 321 scrips were active of which 137 advanced, 158 declined and 26 remained unchanged.

The ready market volumes stood at 151.12 million shares, compared with the turnover of 157.43 million shares in the last trading session.

The companies which reflected the highest gains included Rafhan Maize up Rs155 to close at Rs9,955/share, Nestle Pakistan up Rs149.98 to close at Rs5,800/share.

The companies which reflected the most losses included Sapphire Fiber down Rs49 to close at Rs1,100/share, and Indus Motor down Rs28.70 to close at Rs1,198/share.

The highest volumes were witnessed in Unity Foods Ltd with a turnover of 11.82 million shares. The scrip gained 38 paisas to close at Rs20.45/share, followed by D G K Cement with a turnover of 9.62 million shares. It shed 53 paisas to close at Rs56.13/share. Oilboy Energy(R) remained the third with a turnover of 8.25 million shares. It gained 67 paisas to finish at Rs2.77/share.