Bears make a comeback as KSE-100 loses 468 points

Bears dominated the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Tuesday, with the indices shedding gains accumulated in the previous session amid buying activity.

Global equity markets also showed a negative trend, whereas crude oil prices moved north from the previous close; WTI crude price appreciating 1.27pc to $39.02 while Brent crude price rising 1.13pc to $41.27.

"PSX opened on a positive note but following the announcement of PSO's financial results, the market discounted the earnings' growth and investors resorted to profit booking, which brought down the index down significantly," said a report issued by AHL Ltd. "Besides the deteriorating law and order situation and rise in Covid cases, investors took cue from overnight decline in international stock and commodity markets, which saw an average attrition of 2.5pc."

The benchmark KSE100 Index remained in the red for almost the entire session, registering its intraday low at 41,327.72 after losing 522.75 points. It settled lower by 468.64 points at 41,381.83.

Among other indices, the KMI30 Index plunged 1,000.45 points to end at 66,394.17, while the KSE All Share Index dropped 326.05 points, closing at 29,113.46.

The overall market volumes fell from 487.12 million shares in the previous session to 481.02 million shares (1pc). Average traded value, however, declined by 14pc, from $133 million to $114.5 million. Unity Foods Ltd (UNITY +4.75pc), Power Cement Ltd (POWER 0.87pc) and Fauji Fertilizer Bin Qasim Ltd (FFBL +4.30pc) led the volume chart, exchanging 77.19 million, 33.04 million and 31.34 million shares, respectively.

Sectors that dragged the benchmark index lower included banking (138.79 points), cement (90.28 points) and oil & gas exploration (62.75 points). Among the companies, Habib Bank Ltd (HBL 60.28 points), Bank AL Habib Ltd (BAHL 46.29 points) and Pakistan State Oil Company Ltd (PSO 33.29 points) dented the index the most.

Shedding 2.04pc from its cumulative market capitalization, the cement sector ended as the session’s top loser, with DG Khan Cement Company Ltd (DGKC 2.35pc), Bestway Cement Company Ltd (BWCL 2.54pc) and Maple Leaf Cement Factory Ltd (MLCF 3.03pc) posting significant losses.

On the financial side, Pakistan State Oil Company Ltd (PSO 3.27pc) announced earnings per share of Rs10.96 for the first quarter of FY21 (Rs7.52 last year); Mughal Iron and Steel Industries Ltd (MUGHAL 3.80pc) declared an EPS of Rs1.40 for 1QFY21 (Rs1.05 last year); Sazgar Engineering Works Ltd (SAZEW 1.68pc) recorded an EPS of Rs0.61 for 1QFY21 (Rs0.28 last year); whereas Pakistan Suzuki Motors Company Ltd (PSMC 0.63pc) published an loss per share of Rs1.66 for 3QFY20 (Rs14.11 last year).