KARACHI - The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) kicked off trading week with bearish note, pulling down the benchmark KSE-100 index by 604 points or (down 1.44pc) to close at 41,483.54 points. During the intraday KSE-100 went low by 41,414.12 points and high by 42,162. The negative sentiment occurred due to profit taking by investors, brokers said.
Steel sector witnessed interest on the back of 19 percent definitive 5-year Anti-Dumping Duty (ADD) on steel re-bars imported from China. Subsequently, ASTL (up 5pc), MUGHAL (5pc) and ITTEFAQ (4.9pc) closed deep in the green, said dealer at Topline Securities. Top 5 index point decliners were ENGRO (down 4.7pc), LUCK (slip 4.4pc), PPL (decline 2.7pc), OGDC (slump 2.1pc) & DGKC (dip 5pc), eroding 278 points while SNGPL (up 3.5pc), ASTL (gain 5pc), AICL (rose 1.9pc), EFOODS (up 3.9pc) and UBL (gain 0.2pc) added 46 points. EFOODS surprised investors as lower marketing expenses restricted the company’s decline in its net earnings which was down 68 percent YoY in 3Q2017. Sector wise; Cement sector eroded 161 points as investors booked profits in DGKC (down 5pc) and LUCK (slip 4.4pc) after last week’s gain while PIOC hit its lower limit on announcement of disappointed 1QFY18 result, E&Ps declined 125 points while Fertiliser was down 105 points led by ENGRO which took away 86 points from the sector, OMC’s added 19 points.
Stocks fell sharply lower on political noise over the prime minister NAB references amid threat of resignation by interior minister and concern over outcome of IHC dismissing petitions challenging corruption proceedings, observed analyst Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp. Dismal economic outlook uncertainty over outcome of EU GSP Plus review this month, dismal data on cement and fertilisers sales for September 2017, falling global crude prices on higher OPEC output and political uncertainty played catalyst role in bearish close at PSX, he added.
Average market volumes were down by 41.3 percent DoD to 153 million shares, similarly average traded value was declined 38.1 percent at Rs8 billion/$76.3 million. Volume leaders for the day were DSL, ANL, SNGP, EPCL and TRG which cumulatively contributed 39.0 percent to total volumes.
