KARACHI: The Pakistan equity market closed in the red zone on Thursday, as the global indices fell, amid an increase of 75 basis points by the US Federal Reserve to counter global inflation.
An analyst at Pearl Securities said that the pressure on currency kept continuing which dragged down the investors’ interest.
“However, recovery was seen in the second half of the session as the Islamabad High Court has decided not to indict the former prime minister in the contempt of court case against him, thus easing pressure on the local political front,” he added.
Additionally, the country’s current account deficit declined 19 per cent during the first two months of fiscal year 2023 to $1.92 billion amid lower import bill and increase in exports, he added.
“Therefore, going forward, we expect the market to perform on the back of political and economic inflows. Hence, we suggest our investors to book profits at a higher level.”
The Pakistan Stock Exchange KSE-100 shares Index shed 37.63 points, or 0.09 per cent to close at 40,927.95 points. The KSE-30 shares Index shed 18.75 points, or 0.12 per cent, to close at 15,355.53 points.
An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the bourse witnessed a negative session due to prevailing political noise besides uncertainty on the economic front.
“The benchmark KSE-100 Index nosedived following the same trend from the previous session although in the last trading hour value buying was recorded. Volumes continued to thrive in the main board whereas hefty volumes were observed in the third tier stocks,” he added.
As many as 328 scrips were active of which 106 advanced, 203 declined and 19 remained unchanged.
The ready market volumes stood at 190.09 million shares, compared with the turnover of 170.41 million shares in the last trading session.
The companies which reflected the highest gains included Sanofi-Aventis up Rs79 to close at Rs1,229/share, and Sapphire Fiber up Rs71.93 to close at Rs1,228.50/share.
The companies which reflected the most losses included Rafhan Maize down Rs595 to close at Rs9,055/share, and Hallmark Company Limited down Rs13.50 to close at Rs166.50/share.
The highest volumes were witnessed in WorldCall Telecom with a turnover of 19.95 million shares. The scrip remained unchanged to close at Rs1.14/share, followed by Cnergyico PK with a turnover of 18.59 million shares. It shed 6 paisas to close at Rs4.86/share. TRG Pakistan remained the third with a turnover of 17.56 million shares. It gained Rs5.65 to finish at Rs119.72/share.
