KARACHI: The Pakistan equity market on Monday closed on a negative note as investors wait for a green signal over the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme besides mounting inflation.
An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the market stayed under pressure throughout the day due to concerns over mounting inflation and expected rate hike in the upcoming monetary policy.
“The benchmark KSE-100 Index opened in the green zone but soon witnessed profit-taking. Volumes remained dry in the main board although decent volumes were witnessed in the 3rd tier stocks,” he added.
The Pakistan Stock Exchange KSE-100 shares Index shed 0.68 per cent, or 282.16 points, to close at 41,348.19 points. The KSE-30 shares Index shed 0.78 per cent, or 124.31 points, to close at 15,736.92 points.
An analyst at Topline Securities said that the equities closed on a negative note where the benchmark KSE-100 Index was down 0.68 per cent.
“After a sideways opening, the market skid making an intraday low of 307 points amid low volumes as the investors are waiting for a green signal over the IMF programme,” he added.
As many as 303 scrips were active of which 88 advanced, 197 declined and 18 remained unchanged.
The ready market volumes stood at 86.61 million shares, compared with the turnover of 154.03 million shares in the last trading session.
The companies which reflected the highest gains included Sanofi-Aventis up Rs86.13 to close at Rs1,234.61/share, Sapphire Textile up Rs76.40 to close at Rs1,178.90/share.
The companies which reflected the most losses included J D W Sugar down Rs15 to close at Rs215/share, and Indus Motor Co down Rs14.97 to close at Rs1,140.11/share.
The highest volumes were witnessed in Sui North Gas with a turnover of 12.47 million shares. The scrip gained 93 paisas to close at Rs36.40/share, followed by Agritech Limited with a turnover of 8.09 million shares. It gained 20 paisas to close at Rs6.74/share. Pak Refinery remained the third with a turnover of 4.38 million shares. It shed 56 paisas to finish at Rs16.91/share.
