Closing Bell: Running to stand still

August 28, 2019 (MLN): After delivering a strong performance in the first half of today’s session, the KSE-100 fell flat on its face as it gained merely 52 points by the end of the session and closed at 30,637-mark.

The index was temporarily lifted by the announcement by Dutch company to invest $2.8 billion in Pakistan. Moreover, despite strong and attractive valuations on various stocks, the investors chose to play safe by over selling their stocks.

Apart from this, several commercial banks announced their financial results for the half year period ended June 30, 2019, which are as follows;

• Meezan Bank reported 63.3% increase in its net profits to Rs.7 billion, with an Earning per share (EPS) of Rs 5.42
• National Bank of Pakistan announced Profit after Tax of Rs. 11.3 billion (EPS: Rs. 5.34), i.e. nearly 10.7% lower than the earnings of same period last year
• Soneri Bank Limited declared Profit after Tax of Rs. 974 billion, which signifies almost no growth from the PAT figure reported in same period of last year
• Silkbank Limited announced Profit after Tax of Rs. 116 million (EPS: Rs. 0.01), signifying a decline of 84% over the same period of last year

The Index traded in a range of 545.51 points or 1.78 percent of previous close, showing an intraday high of 31,107.65 and a low of 30,562.14.

Of the 93 traded companies in the KSE100 Index 41 closed up 45 closed down, while 7 remained unchanged. Total volume traded for the index was 112.41 million shares.

Sectors propping up the index were Commercial Banks with 36 points, Oil & Gas Exploration Companies with 36 points, Fertilizer with 31 points, Tobacco with 18 points and Engineering with 9 points.

The most points added to the index was by ENGRO which contributed 31 points followed by UBL with 29 points, POL with 25 points, PAKT with 18 points and MEBL with 17 points.

Sector wise, the index was let down by Pharmaceuticals with 18 points, Inv. Banks / Inv. Cos. / Securities Cos. with 18 points, Cement with 13 points, Food & Personal Care Products with 12 points and Automobile Assembler with 11 points.

The most points taken off the index was by DAWH which stripped the index of 16 points followed by NESTLE with 15 points, COLG with 11 points, KEL with 10 points and HMB with 9 points.

All Share Volume increased by 29.24 Million to 149.01 Million Shares. Market Cap increased by Rs.3.67 Billion.

Total companies traded were 340 compared to 331 from the previous session. Of the scrips traded 151 closed up, 169 closed down while 20 remained unchanged.

Total trades increased by 1,660 to 56,512.

Value Traded increased by 0.08 Billion to Rs.5.38 Billion

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