KARACHI: The Pakistan equity market remained in a red territory on Wednesday owing to rumors of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) likely measures for the banking sector.
An analyst at Pearl Securities said that profit taking was observed in the banking sector owing to the rumor that the SBP is considering a one-time portfolio reclassification for banks which will likely restrict the banks from paying dividends, thus, dragging the overall sentiment.
“The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has also set four more tough prior conditions for the revival of the loan programme. Going forward, we expect the market to move both ways on account of dull inflows. Therefore, we recommend our investors to book profits at a higher level,” he added.
An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the market remained under pressure due to major sell-off in the banking stocks, besides the cement sector which stayed in the red zone due to increase in Afghan coal price and export tax.
“Value buying was witnessed in the exploration and production sector. In the last trading hour, profit taking was witnessed across the board,” he added.
The Pakistan Stock Exchange KSE-100 shares Index shed 1.12 per cent, or 467.89 points, to close at 41,297.73 points. The KSE-30 shares Index shed 1.49 per cent, or 237.21 points, to close at 15,696.62 points.
As many as 316 scrips were active of which 124 advanced, 168 declined and 24 remained unchanged.
An analyst at Topline Securities said that the equities opened on positive note however, rumors regarding possible restriction on dividend payment of banks which reclassify their PIB profile triggered a selling spree in the banking sector stocks which compelled the benchmark index to see an intraday low of 646 points or 1.57 per cent.
“However some value hunting at the aforesaid low index level rescued the KSE-100 Index and assisted it to eventually settle 41,297.73 points,” he added.
The ready market volumes stood at 142.19 million shares, compared with the turnover of 257.16 million shares in the last trading session.
The companies which reflected the highest gains included Sanofi-Aventis up Rs69.33 to close at Rs998.83/share, Colgate Palm up Rs47.99 to close at Rs2,247.99/share.
The companies which reflected the most losses included Nestle Pakistan down Rs190 to close at Rs5,800/share, and Premium Textile down Rs49.90 to close at Rs690.10/share.
The highest volumes were witnessed in K Electric Ltd with a turnover of 14.37 million shares. The scrip shed 4 paisas to close at Rs3.09/share, followed by WorldCall Telecom with a turnover of 11.61 million shares. It shed 3 paisas to close at Rs1.36/share. Hascol Petrol remained the third with a turnover of 7.56 million shares. It gained 24 paisas to finish at Rs4.25/share.
