Karachi: The bearish spell continues in the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) as a fall in global oil prices added pressure to the already declining market. The profit-taking and stop-loss strategy by the investors made the benchmark index move down for the fifth straight day.
The benchmark Karachi Share Index (KSE-100) lost 588.77 points (1.26 per cent) after closing at 46,055.52 points against the previous closing of 46,644.29 points. The market went up to 46,937.45 points during intra-day trading, while recorded as low as 45,964.66 points.
Trading volume increased to 1.12 billion shares today as compared to 1.01 billion traded in the previous session, according to PSX website data. The daily traded value increased to Rs 35.59 billion from Rs 27.29 billion in the previous session, the data said.
The physiological barrier of 47,000 points for the benchmark Index seems a bit difficult to breach as every time it reaches near it, level profit-taking hits the market, traders and analysts said. The same happened today as the intra-day high was just 51 points away from the barrier, they added.
KSE-100 Index opened the day in positive with fresh buying at attractive prices due to the previous day’s decline. The index reached the trading day high levels within the first ten minutes of the trade. However, the market sentiment failed to sustain against the sell in energy and oil sector giants that led the index in negative territory in the next one hour. The sell in oil and energy stocks was due to a decline in international oil prices after a nine-day long rising streak, they added.
Oil prices fell on Thursday, giving up some of the recent strong gains on profit-taking and speculation that the market’s strength could tempt producers like Saudi Arabia to reduce output by less. Brent crude fell 40 cents, or 0.7%, to $61.07 a barrel, as of 0350 GMT, after touching its highest since January 2020 on Wednesday, after a strong run in recent days driven by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies agreed on output cuts and vaccine rollouts fired up hopes of a recovery in demand.
US crude slid 35 cents, or 0.6%, to $58.33 a barrel. Crude stocks last week fell for a third straight week, dropping 6.6 million barrels to 469 million barrels, their lowest since March, according to the Energy Information Administration. Brent has risen for the previous nine sessions, its longest sustained period of gains since January 2019.
The share price of Rafan Maize increased by Rs 299 to Rs 10,499. while AKD Capital gained Rs 34.89 to Rs 500.20. On the other hand, Nestle Pakistan lost Rs 80 today to close at Rs 6,220 while Pakistan Tobacco lost Rs 59 to close at Rs 1,540.
