KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) Monday witnessed volatility and closed almost flat after adding just 39.44 points to take the tally to 40049.80 level.
The stocks recorded the highest trading level of 40131.37 points and lowest level of 39931.52 points, with the volume of 96.36 million shares and value of Rs4.58 billion. As many as 335 companies were active; of which 169 advanced, 146 declined and 20 remained unchanged.
TRG Pak Ltd was the volume leader with 16.38 million shares, shedding Rs1.71 to reach Rs37.06. It was followed by K-Electric with 6.03 million shares, gaining Rs0.02 to end at Rs6.34 and Azgard Nine with 5.13 million shares, adding Rs5.13 to close at Rs16.03.
The top three gainers were Sapphire Tex with price per share of 1828.90 (83.89), Pak Suzuki with price per share of 504.42 (24.02) and Jubile Life Ins of 784.90 (16.90).
The top three losers were Island Textile with price per share of 755.25 (-39.75), Atlas Battery with price per share of 513.06 (-27) and Exide (PAK) share of 475.33 (-15.82).
Earlier, the stocks started new week on bullish note and added 120 points to reach 40130 points level in early trading. The PSX became bearish till midday as the benchmark 100-index lost 38 points to drop to 39972 points level.
Last week, the PSX benchmark KSE 100-index registered only a marginal decline of 0.6 percent WoW to close at 40,010 points. The week also brought in new hope for K-Electric (KEL, +5.16 percent WoW), where expectations are starting to build again over completion of strategic sale of the power utility to Shanghai Electric as NEPRA may look to reconsider its multi-year tariff.
The week finished off with Engro Corporation (ENGRO, +3.29 percent WoW adjusted for Rs7.0/share dividend) closing strongly on MSCI rebalancing day, even though the stock was downgraded from MSCI Global Standard Index to MSCI Global Small Cap Index; indicating strong local appetite. However, gas utilities (-7 percent WoW) came under pressure as OGRA is beginning consultation on revising their rate of return model. During the week, foreigners were net sellers of $39.4m, whereas local individuals were net buyers of $8.6m.
Stocks including PPL (-3 percent WoW), SNGP (-8 percent), LUCK (-3 percent), DAWH (-5 percent) and HUBC (-3 percent) held 235pts from the index, while UBL (+5 percent), ENGRO (+3 percent), PAKT (+13 percent), TRG (+9 percent) and MCB (2 percent) added 248 points. On the sector capitalization front; OMCs & refinery shed 4 percent apiece, E&Ps & cements were down 2 percent each, auto assemblers, insurance, fertilizer and textile lost around 1 percent, power was flat, banks gained 1 percent, and food was up 3 percent.
Foreigners sold $39.5m during the week (vs selling of $6.3m last week). On the local front, individuals & insurance sector were net buyers of $8.6m and $8.5m, respectively. Selling was concentrated in fertilizer ($29.5m) & banks ($5.5m) whereas buying was seen in OMC sector to the tune of $2.4m. During the month of Nov’17, KSE-100 was up 1 percent as compared to 6.5 percent fall in Oct’17, while during 2017TD the market is down by 16 percent.