The Pakistan Stock Exchange endured another volatile session on Tuesday, as investors were observed weighing the impact of ongoing political uncertainty and deteriorating macroeconomic indicators after a brief pause.
Pushed by these factors, the market players opted to offload their stockholdings at attractive valuations and the KSE-100 index lost over 200 points.
Fresh devaluation of the rupee against the US dollar, as it dropped another 1.03% on a day-on-day basis in the inter-bank market, dented the confidence of market participants.
Moreover, uncertainty about the resumption of International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan programme haunted the trading environment at the bourse.
Earlier, the trading started on a positive note as the market rallied in the initial hours, touching an intra-day high of 46,746 points.
However, it failed to sustain the rally due to late-session profit-taking and the index, after oscillating in a narrow range, finally settled in the red zone for the second consecutive day.
At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index recorded a decline of 206.23 points, or 0.44%, to settle at 46,333.36 points.
Topline Securities, in its report, said that Pakistan equities closed in the red as the benchmark KSE-100 index settled at 46,333.
The day kicked off on a positive note, where the market touched an intra-day high of 206 points as investors cheered Engro Polymer and Chemicals’ result announcement and material information, it said.
The company announced its expansion and earnings per share of Rs5.19 along with dividend per share of Rs5 for the first quarter of 2022, which led the stock to close at its upper cap, Topline said.
However, some profit-taking was witnessed in the second half, where major laggards were Hub Power Company, Pakistan Petroleum Limited, TRG Pakistan and Oil and Gas Development Company as they dented the index by a cumulative 134 points.
On the results front, Engro Fertilisers announced earnings per share of Rs4.13 along with dividend per share of Rs5.5 for the first quarter of 2022, while Bank AL Habib declared earnings per share of Rs4.4 for the same quarter, Topline added.
