KARACHI: The Pakistan equity market observed a negative session on Tuesday due to rupee depreciation besides concerns over the resumption of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme.
An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the market stayed under pressure throughout the day where volumes remained dry in the main board whereas decent volumes were witnessed in the third tier stocks.
The Pakistan Stock Exchange KSE-100 shares Index shed 0.59 per cent, or 245.62 points, to close at 41,102.57 points. The KSE-30 shares Index shed 0.65 per cent, or 101.79 points, to close at 15,635.13 points.
An analyst at Pearl Securities said that the KSE-100 Index remained under pressure throughout the day amid expected hike in the policy rate by 100bps to 150bps in the upcoming Monetary Policy Statement (MPS) scheduled on the day after tomorrow.
“Moreover, record high trade deficit of $48.2 billion for fiscal year 2022 along with uncertainty regarding the IMF programme, as the government tries to meet the remaining preconditions to resume the $2 billion tranche, kept the investors’ sentiment dull,” he added.
“Going forward, we expect the market to remain under pressure until the clarity on the IMF programme. Hence, we recommend our investors to adopt the “Sell on Strength” strategy in the upcoming sessions,” he added.
As many as 321 scrips were active of which 119 advanced, 176 declined and 26 remained unchanged.
The ready market volumes stood at 76.89 million shares, compared with the turnover of 86.61 million shares in the last trading session.
The companies which reflected the highest gains included Allawasaya Textile up Rs114.40 to close at Rs1,639.82/share, Sanofi-Aventis up Rs92.59 to close at Rs1,327.20/share.
The companies which reflected the most losses included Unilever Foods down Rs1,400 to close at Rs24,000/share, and Nestle Pakistan down Rs140 to close at Rs5,660/share.
The highest volumes were witnessed in Maple Leaf with a turnover of 6.53 million shares. The scrip shed Rs1.39 paisas to close at Rs25.44/share, followed by WorldCall Telecom with a turnover of 4.79 million shares. It gained 2 paisas to close at Rs1.37/share. Fauji Cement remained the third with a turnover of 4.43 million shares. It shed 50 paisas to finish at Rs13.47/share.