Pakistan stocks lost ground on Monday, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index closing well below the 46,000-point level after the United States warned Russia could attack Ukraine within days, while oil briefly hit eight-year peaks on fears of a conflict that would hit supplies.
Although higher than on Friday, volume of shares traded on the all-share index remained low, with investors remaining jittery on the prospect of escalation on the Russia-Ukraine front.
The conflict has already taken a toll on oil prices that rose to hit their highest in more than seven years, while global equities also took a dive on Monday.
Across-the-board selling was witnessed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) with experts warning that escalation of the conflict could dampen prospects of easing inflation in coming months.
“Pakistan equities commenced the week on a negative note joining its regional peers on increasing geopolitical tension between Russia and Ukraine,” said Topline Securities in its post-market comment.
“The KSE-100 index mostly remained in the red throughout the day as investors showed their concern over the upcoming inflationary pressure due to rally in global oil prices led by aforesaid tension,” it added.
During the session, the benchmark index dropped to an intra-day low of 45,508 level, down 571 points. However, value hunting helped the KSE-100 post a minor recovery.
At close on Monday, the KSE-100 finished with a fall of 435.28 points or 0.94% to finish at 45,644.09.
Meanwhile, Sana Tawfik, vice-president research and a senior analyst at Arif Habib Limited (AHL), told Business Recorder that political noise on the local and international fronts surrounded the market.
“The no-confidence movement of the opposition, and the Russia-Ukraine escalation have created pressure across the board,” she said, referring also to the opposition parties' planned move to bring a no-confidence motion against the government.
Tawfik said the index is also expected to remain under pressure amid hike in oil prices. “However, corporate results have provided support to the market, and have mitigated the impact, which could have been worse if it was not the results season,” added Tawfik.
On the economic front, remittances by overseas Pakistanis were down by 4.99% YoY to $2,144.35 million, revealed data released by State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) earlier. On a month-on-month basis, a decline of 14.92% was recorded.
On the corporate front, Netsol disclosed its 2QFY22 financial result where the company posted earnings of Rs5.78, an improvement of 398% YoY.
Sectors dragging the benchmark index downwards included banking (67.72 points), technology and communication (67.11 points), and cement (52.39 points).
Volume on the all-share index increased to 187.81 million from 170.63 million on Friday. The value of shares traded declined to Rs5.95 billion from Rs7.72 billion recorded in the previous session.
WorldCall Limited was the volume leader with 33.53 million shares, followed by Telecard Limited with 9.88 million shares, and Ghani Global Holdings with 7.81 million shares.
Shares of 349 companies were traded on Monday, of which only 58 registered an increase, 273 recorded a fall, and 18 remained unchanged.
