Stocks edge down amid oil slump, economic uncertainty

Stocks closed slightly lower on Tuesday, as investors remained cautious amid a lack of positive triggers and mixed global cues, dealers said.

“The equity market remained range-bound all today and closed negative amid lack of triggers,” brokerage house Ismail Iqbal Securities stated in its post-market report. Dealers said a global equity sell-off and a slump in oil prices dampened investor sentiment, while economic uncertainty and high inflation weighed on the domestic outlook.

Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX)’s benchmark KSE-100 index shed 116 points or 0.25 percent to close at 46,277 points. During the session, the index traded in a range of 244.86 points showing an intraday high of 46,503.82 and a low of 46,258 points.

The total volume of remained at 95.627 million shares. Over 258.8 million shares traded, while total value clocked in at Rs6.7 billion. 42 companies closed up, 52 closed down, 3 were unchanged, while 3 remained untraded.

“Stocks fell amid global equity sell and slump in global crude oil prices," said analyst Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp . "Eonomic uncertainty, high inflation, government debt crises and concerns for amassing Rs2.8 trillion gas circular debt played a catalytic role in bearish close."

Topline Securities in its post-trading note said equities had a better day in term of both market momentum and volumes. The benchmark index floated in the range of 245 points (+110 & -135 points) during trading hours and settled the day at 46,278 points.

Banks, E&P, Tech & Fertilizer sectors contributed negatively to the index where investors chose to trim their position into HBL, PPL, SYS, ENGRO & MEBL as they lost 108 points, cumulatively.

On the flip side, NESTLE, MCB & ATRL added 55 points as they saw buying interest in them. PIAA led the volumes chart & witnessed a change of hands of over 39.4 million shares. Brokerage Arif Habib Limited in its post-trading note said that selling pressure seems muted as the market consolidates above 46,000 points.

The big movers were AIRLINK PA (+6.19%), PAKT PA (+5.35%), ATRL PA (+4.37%) and NRL PA (+4.32%). The brokerage said said that continuing to look for upside expansion in the remaining two sessions in this shortened trading week, AIRLINK PA continues to look interesting for an explosive move towards PKR 30.

KSE-100 Index was let down by Oil & Gas Exploration Companies with 41.49, Commercial Banks with 32.86, Technology & Communication with 26.04, Fertilizer with 25.69, and Chemical with 15.07 points.

Companies dragging the index lower were HBL with 37.15, PPL with 23.13, SYS with 20.11, ENGRO with 14.09 and MEBL with 14.08 points. The All-Share index closed at 31,124.50 with a net gain of 41.69 points.

Total market volume was 259.047 million shares compared to 195.675 from the previous session while traded value was recorded at Rs6.69 billion showing an increase of Rs1.16 billion.There were 114,412 trades reported in 327 companies with 142 closing up, 164 closing down and 21 remaining unchanged.