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Friday March 29, 2024

Stocks end flat ahead of FATF huddle

By Our Correspondent
June 19, 2021

Stocks on Friday ended flattish in tight trade as investors remained mostly noncommittal ahead of anti money laundering and terror financing watchdog’s meeting to decide Pakistan’s fate next week, dealers said.

Presently on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) ‘grey list’, Pakistan has been struggling in recent months to avert ending up on a list of countries declared non-compliant with the regulations of the watchdog.

Pakistan Stock Exchange’s (PSX) KSE-100 Shares Index gained 0.17 percent or 81.04 points to close at 48,238.68 points.

Brokerage JS Global Capital in a note said trading started on a bearish note as the benchmark index sank to an intraday low of -135 points.

However, by mid-day, bulls had managed to pull back the index to an intraday high of +254 points, the brokerage said.

“The drop in investor participation is evidenced by 33 percent decline in traded volumes,” the JS report said.

The ready market volumes decreased to 750.56 million shares from 1.11 billion in the last trading session.

“Going forward, we expect volatility in the market due to rollover week and recommend investors to avail any downside as an opportunity to buy in construction and export oriented sectors,” the brokerage said.

Topline Securities in its daily market review said range-bound session was observed at the local bourse.

Major contribution to the index came from LUCK, TRG, NRL, ENGRO and POL, as they cumulatively added 100 points to the index, whereas on the other hand HBL, UNITY, MCB, MTL, and UBL dented the index by 118 points, the brokerage said.

As many as 405 scrips were active of which 222 gained, 163 lost, and 20 closed without a change.

Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp said stocks closed higher led by selected scrips across the board as investors weighed government's GDP growth target set at 4.8 percent for FY22, progress in resolving Rs2.1 trillion circular debt, and strong remittances.

Higher global crude oil prices over $70 and rupee stability helped stocks end in the green at the apex bourse, Mehanti said.

KSE-30 Shares Index gained 0.02 percent or 4.56 points to close at 19,425.65 points.

An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said refineries, cement, fertiliser, oil and gas marketing companies, and technology inched up, which helped index trade in the positive territory.

Concerns of redemption with some mutual funds maintained a selling pressure in the market, the analyst said.

An analyst at Pearl Securities said IMF programme had been delayed for three months, while investors were also concerned over FATF meeting due next week.

The ECC has decided to defer the payments of IPPs which further dropped the market sentiment, he added. “Going forward, we expect the market to stay in the positive territory,” the Pearl Securities analyst said.

Rafhan Maize secured Rs44.55 to close at Rs9,500/share, and Sapphire Textile strengthened by Rs39.15 to close at Rs926.6/share to emerge as the best gainers of the day.

Gatron Industries gave up Rs40.99 to close at Rs520/share, and Nestle Pakistan slipped by Rs30 to end at Rs5,750/share as the worst losers of the session.

Network was the volume leader with a turnover of 88.56 million shares. The scrip gained 60 paisas to close at Rs9.12/share. Worldcall Telecom was second with a turnover of 76.46 million shares. It gained 11 paisas to close at Rs4.12/share. Byco Petroleum was third with 70.88 million shares and added 50 paisas to its value to finish at Rs12.86.