Closing Bell: KSE-100 Index closes in red; Investors cautious amidst lack of positive triggers

KSE-100 index carried forward yesterday’s negative momentum into today’s session witnessing a 200 point dip early into the day. Session closed first half in positive but retracted below yesterday’s close. Pakistan Equities were relatively un-moved in lethargic manner and traded range bound on Friday. Stocks opened negative at the open and KSE-100 Index traded in a range throughout the day as almost all of the investors were engaged in cautious trading due to a severe lack of uplifting triggers in sight and the echoing domestic political noise in the background.

Fauji Fertilizers (FFC) -3.4%, Sui Northern Gas Co (SNGP) -2.6%, Pakistan Petroleum (PPL) -1.1% were the top losers and took away 70 points from index while United Bank (UBL) +2% and MCB Bank (MCB) +1.3% were amongst the top gainers for the day at session end. KSE-100 Index participation declined to 52.08 million shares down from 82.28 million shares yesterday.

Regarding the health of economy, SBP data revealed that Pakistan’s Total External Debt is expected to cross $100 Billion dollar mark by 2019-20. In addition to that, Pakistan’s cost of financing the debt and current account gap is projected to increase from $ 6.6 billion in 2015-16 to $13 billion by 2019-20. With no respite in coming years, the next five years are going to become extremely uneasy for Pakistan as Pakistan’s external debt and liabilities would equal to 387 percent of the Export Earnings within next three years.

In Corporate news, IBL Healthcare Ltd. (IBLHL), Dadex Eternit (DADX), Ismail Industries Ltd. (ISIL), Macter International (MACTER), Murree Brewery (MUREB), Nishat (Chunian) Power Ltd. (NCPL) and Nishat (Chunian) Ltd. (NCL) announced financial results for the twelve months period ended June, 30 2017.

Murree Brewery (MUREB) reported an increase of 7.24 percent in Net Sales and a decrease in profits by 19 percent. Whereas, Nishat (Chunian) Ltd. (NCL) reported an increase of 15.66 percent in Revenue, and an increase of 22.02 percent in Profits after Taxation.

Nishat (Chunian) Power Ltd. FY17 also released financial results today, the power generation company reported Earnings of Rs. 8.17 per share, an increase of 16.56 percent in Revenue and an increase of 9 percent in Profit after Tax owing to an increase in power sales during the reported year.

KSE-100 Index at the day lost a total of 24.85 points down by 0.06%, closing at 42750.19 points. Index Volume was 52.08 million shares, value of shares traded was PKR 3.8 billion with index low-high range of 42572.04 – 42921.13.

178 companies closed up, whereas 184 were down at the day end.

In the commodity news, the Board of Pakistan Central Cotton Committee (PCCC) here on Friday approved Rs 690.65 million budget for the financial year 2017-18 in order to meet the financial requirements of the Committee. The 85th meeting of the PCCC held here with Minister for Commerce and Textile Industry Muhammad Pervaiz Malik in the chair to discuss the matters of committee. The Commerce Minister welcomed the participants and said that the present govt. is highly focused on facilitating the textile sector and that this committee can play a significant role as Pakistan’s Textile Sector has tremendous Potential.

According to Figures released by PBS, the Weekly SPI for the combined Group increased by 0.61 percent, of the 53 items tracked in the SPI, 9 registered increase, 14 decreased while 30 remained unchanged.