KARACHI: The Pakistan equity market closed in the red zone on Wednesday after investors’ opted for profit-taking over macroeconomic uncertainty besides a decline in the value of the rupee, analysts said.
An analyst at Pearl Securities said that the market remained under pressure as profit-taking was witnessed across the board driving it to close on a negative note.
“The finance team is in the US for talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank to discuss various issues post-flood situation that has made the market cautious,” he added.
“The appreciation in the value of the rupee has also halted after 13 sessions. Going forward, the market will move sideways till clarity comes from the meetings with the IMF. Hence, we recommend our investors adopt the “Sell on Strength” strategy in the upcoming sessions,” the analyst said.
The Pakistan Stock Exchange KSE-100 shares Index shed 148.34 points, or 0.35 per cent to close at 42,007.14 points. The KSE-30 shares Index shed 52.83 points, or 0.34 per cent, to close at 15,570.08 points.
Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp said that the stocks witnessed a bearish close after Moody’s downgraded five major Pakistani banks’ ratings with negative outlook and a dismal data of $2.4 billion remittances for September.
“The International Monetary Fund (IMF) cut the growth forecast to 3.5 per cent for fiscal year 2023 along with a 19.9 per cent inflation forecast, likely to impact the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) policy rates, while the rupee also weakened which played a catalyst role in the bearish close,” he added.
As many as 353 scrips were active of which 122 advanced, 204 declined and 27 remained unchanged.
The ready market volumes stood at 238.65 million shares, compared with the turnover of 304.83 million shares in the last trading session.
The companies which reflected the highest gains included Nestle Pakistan up Rs200 to close at Rs5,980/share, and Reliance Cotton up Rs36 to close at Rs594/share.
The companies which reflected the most losses included Sanofi-Aventis down Rs85.50 to close at Rs1,054.50/share, and Bhanero Textile down Rs84.37 to close at Rs1,040.63/share.
The highest volumes were witnessed in K-Electric with a turnover of 34.44 million shares. The scrip gained 10 paisas to close at Rs3.06/share, followed by WorldCall Telecom with a turnover of 30.54 million shares. It shed 5 paisas to close at Rs1.51/share. Telecard Limited remained the third with a turnover of 16.27 million shares. It gained 36 paisas to close at Rs11.66/share.
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