ZUBAIR YAQOOB
KARACHI Market opened on a negative note on Monday with -127pts and continued trending down throughout the session to realize a loss of -642pts. Slump in international crude oil prices as well as bearish performance of Regional Stock markets caused selling pressure at PSX. Cement sector came out as the winner, following on the trajectory shown on the last trading day on account of possible relief package for real estate construction sector. Resultantly, MLCF hit upper circuits, whereas DGKC also traded near upper circuit. Due to significant price reductions during the later half of the outgoing month also gave hope to the Investors of a reduction in monthly CPI number. Power sector led the volumes with 41M shares, followed by Cement (29.5M) and Banks (18M). Among scrips, KEL topped the chart with 35M shares, followed by MLCF (9.6M) and HASCOL (7.2M). The Index closed at 28,023pts as against 28,110pts showing a decline of 86pts (-0.3% DoD). Sectors contributing to the performance include E&P (-133pts), Banks (- 95pts), Tobacco (-19pts), Cement (+136pts), Power (+47pts), Pharma (+12pts). Volumes declined from 169.5mn shares to 159.4mn shares (-6% DoD). Average traded value also by 0.3% to reach US$ 25.4mn as against US$ 25.6mn. Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include KEL, MLCF, HASCOL, UNITY and SMBL, which formed 41% of total volumes. Stocks that contributed positively to the index include LUCK (+65pts), FFC (+38pts), HUBC (+32pts), DGKC (+18pts) and FCCL (+17pts). Stocks that contributed negatively include PPL (-73pts), OGDC (-46pts), UBL (-35pts), UBL (-20pts), and PAKT (-19pts).
