KARACHI: The Pakistan equity market closed in the red zone on Monday, as the investors remained concerned ahead of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Executive Board meeting, besides significant flood losses, analysts said.
Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corporation said that a slump in the global equities, dismal reports of $1.2 billion current account deficit in July 2022, and falling rupee played a catalyst role in the bearish activity.
The Pakistan Stock Exchange KSE-100 shares Index shed 0.20 per cent, or 87.17 points, to close at 42,504.34 points. The KSE-30 shares Index shed 0.16 per cent, or 25.50 points, to close at 16,089.59 points.
An analyst at Topline Securities said that the session kicked-off on a negative note where the market made an intraday low of 763 points as Pakistan is facing another challenge in the shape of heavy rains and flood.
An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the stocks observed a negative session due to concerns over the mounting inflation and GDP growth rate.
“The investors’ participation remained sideways throughout the day, although value buying was witnessed in the last trading hour which helped the Index to recover as it made an intraday low of 763 points. The volumes remained dry in the main board whereas hefty volumes were witnessed in the third tier stocks,” he added.
As many as 337 scrips were active of which 115 advanced, 197 declined and 25 remained unchanged.
The ready market volumes stood at 229.21 million shares, compared with the turnover of 265.75 million shares in the last trading session.
The companies which reflected the highest gains included Gatron Industries up Rs25.95 to close at Rs371.96/share, and Thal Industries up Rs18.82 to close at Rs269.83/share.
The companies which reflected the most losses included Nestle Pakistan down Rs309.98 to close at Rs5,790.02/share, and Sapphire Textile down Rs80.98 to close at Rs1,011.01/share.
The highest volumes were witnessed in WorldCall Telecom with a turnover of 23.81 million shares. The scrip gained 3 paisas to close at Rs1.27/share, followed by K-Electric with a turnover of 15.84 million shares. It gained 2 paisas to close at Rs3.53/share. Cnergyico PK remained the third with a turnover of 12.23 million shares. It shed 9 paisas to finish at Rs5.43/share.
