KARACHI: The Pakistan stock market continued its dull sentiment on Wednesday in line with the global markets as the investors are expecting a hefty interest rate hike in the US Fed Reserve meeting scheduled for today.
An analyst at Pearl Securities said that the concerns over the long march protest announced by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) further heated the political uncertainty.
“Additionally, the dollar continued to surge as it is nearing the previous record high of Rs239.94. Going forward, we expect the market to remain under pressure due to the intense political environment. Hence, we recommend our investors adopt the “Sell on Strength” strategy in the upcoming sessions,” he added.
The Pakistan Stock Exchange KSE-100 shares Index shed 255.33 points, or 0.62 per cent to close at 40,965.58 points. The KSE-30 shares Index shed 110.70 points, or 0.72 per cent, to close at 15,336.78 points.
An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the market witnessed another down-close session due to a lack of positive triggers, after opening in a green zone.
“The continued pressure on the value of the rupee softened the investors’ sentiments where the benchmark KSE-100 Index closed below 41,000 level. All eyes are now on the US Fed Reserve tonight meeting amid the quantum of rate increase,” he added.
An analyst at Topline Securities said that the market continued its yesterday’s negative momentum on the prevailing economic and political uncertainty.
“The day kicked off on a positive note, however bears dominated the index which led the market to make an intraday low of 136 points. Major negativity came from the Oil and Gas Development Company,” he added.
As many as 319 scrips were active of which 100 advanced, 195 declined and 24 remained unchanged.
The ready market volumes stood at 170.41 million shares, compared with the turnover of 156.57 million shares in the last trading session.
The companies which reflected the highest gains included Sapphire Fiber up Rs80.69 to close at Rs1,156.57/share, and Sapphire Textile up Rs76.53 to close at Rs1,097.03/share.
The companies which reflected the most losses included Rafhan Maize down Rs100 to close at Rs9,650/share, and Sitara Chemical down Rs17.96 to close at Rs244.33/share.
The highest volumes were witnessed in K-Electric with a turnover of 40.31 million shares. The scrip shed 10 paisas to close at Rs2.90/share, followed by TPL Properties with a turnover of 11.92 million shares. It shed 54 paisas to close at Rs19.36/share. TRG Pakistan remained the third with a turnover of 11.37 million shares. It shed 57 paisas to finish at Rs114.07/share.
