Karachi: Pakistan shares closed flat after going through a volatile session driven up in first half by PKR slide and losing ground in latter half to heightened political noise.
The benchmark KSE 100 index closed up 19.36 points to 45413.42 points.
The benchmark KSE100 Index soared by more than 1000 points as news of Rupee depreciation made headlines where rupee sank by around 3% against greenback in interbank market; leading to a rally in select sectors.
The Finance Minister also recently stated that a nominal Pak Rupee devaluation of 4 percent-5 percent may be realistic in one of his fiscal year end press conferences on the country’s economic outlook last month.
Primarily, Oil and Power sectors came in the limelight owing to their Dollar-indexed revenues stream where Hub Power, Pakistan Petroleum, OGDC and Pakistan Oilfields mainly led the Index gains.
Afterwards, ongoing political drama along with pressure on import-oriented sectors resulted in bears taking over and wiping all intra-day gains.
Investors were busy repositioning their portfolios evident by the sector specific movements; losers were Engineering (-4.3 percent), Refinery (-3.9 percent), Cable & Electrical
(-3.8 percent), Auto Assembler (-3.3 percent), Cement (-1.6 percent), Pharma (-1.4 percent); as they likely believe rupee depreciation may spike raw material costs (finished imports would also become costlier & those with pricing power would pass through).
Meanwhile, dollar hedge sectors like E&P’s (+3.2%), Textile (+1.8 percent), Transport (1.6 percent) & Power (+1.1 percent) had a field day. Index point leaders were HUBC (+5%), PPL (+4.4%), OGDC (+2.4%), POL (+4.1%) & MCB (+2%) adding 266 points, whereas HBL (-2.9%), LUCK (-2.1%), PAEL (-5%), HCAR (-4.7%) & ISL (-5%) withheld 211 points.
Participation further improved as volumes gained 7 percent to 204 million shares, while traded value climbed 29% to Rs 12.5 billion/ $119.2 million. Market players expect volatile trading to continue in near term with participants closely monitoring political development, institutional flows and exchange rate movement.
