Selling pressure continued at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) as investors engaged in profit-taking after a strong rally earlier in the week, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index settling lower by nearly 1,300 points on Friday.
Negative sentiments prevailed throughout the trading session, dragging the KSE-100 to an intra-day low of 163,041.97.
At close, the benchmark index settled at 163,304.13, a decrease of 1,286.28 points or 0.78%.
“This negativity in the market can be attributed to off late selling by mutual funds, profit taking on result announcement for September quarter and upcoming futures` roll over week,” brokerage house Topline Securities said in its post-market report.
Top negative contribution to the index came from banking sector, as UBL, BAHL, MEBL, HBL, BOP, AKBL & BAFL from the banking sector cumulatively contributed 877 points to the index, it added.
“This pressure in the banking sector can be linked to off late result announcement by BAFL, BAHL, HBL and MEBL for September quarter, which were lower than market expectation on higher-than-expected operating expense.”
On Thursday, PSX witnessed a sharp downturn as persistent selling across major sectors dragged the KSE-100 Index below the 165,000-point mark. The index declined by 1,962.87 points, or 1.18%, to close at 164,590.41 points.
The KSE-100 closed flat on a weekly basis.
The index took a break from its upward momentum, which can be accredited to “selling by mutual funds on rumored redemption during the week as evident from National Clearing Company data and profit taking by investors as September result announcement for main board came in”, Topline said.
Internationally, Asian shares rallied on Friday as Wall Street earnings and signs of a thaw in US-China relations boosted investor sentiment, while oil prices eased following fresh US sanctions on Russian suppliers.
Intel results after the close in New York beat expectations, adding to a batch of positive US earnings reports. Japan’s Nikkei share gauge jumped before a speech where the nation’s new prime minister is expected to talk about stimulus.
As the US government shutdown blots out most economic data, the spotlight is on Friday’s consumer price figures for signals about next week’s policy meeting at the Federal Reserve.
Sentiment was buoyed after the White House confirmed US President Donald Trump will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping next week during a tour through Asia as a tariff deadline looms.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.5% in early trade.
Japan’s Nikkei stock index rose 1.2%.
Meanwhile, the Pakistani rupee registered marginal gain against the US dollar in the inter-bank market on Friday. At close, the local currency settled at 281.02, up by Re0.01 against the US dollar, according to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).
Volume on the all-share index decreased to 1,041 million from 1,504 million recorded in the previous close. The value of shares declined to Rs35.02 billion from Rs49.52 billion in the previous session.
K-Electric Ltd was the volume leader with 194.90 million shares, followed by WorldCall Telecom with 97.55 million shares, and Ist.Capital Sec with 78.09 million shares.
Shares of 478 companies were traded on Friday, of which 136 registered an increase, 300 recorded a fall, and 42 remained unchanged.
