Pakistan equities closed Wednesday slightly negative from the previous close with benchmark KSE-100 Index shedding merely 13 points, closing at 38,023 levels.
Commercial banks mainly Habib Bank Limited (HBL) losing 1.6 percent contributed the most to the index loss today after its forced exit from Afghanistan.
The local bourse made a high and a low of +83 and -181 points, respectively during the session. Market remained range bound where Financials remained the major laggards as HBL (-1.6%), MCB (-1.6%), UBL (-1.0%) and BAHL (-0.2%) closed in the negative zone.
A rally was witnessed in Cements where LUCK (+1.6%), DGKC (+1.6%) and FCCL (+4.5%) led the gains in the aforementioned sector on the back of reports that another round of price hike is expected in both North and South players.
Mixed sentiment was seen in Fertilizers as ENGRO (+0.3%) closed in the green but FFC (-0.8%) remained the laggard. HASCOL (-4.3%), closed near limit down as the company reported its 2018 consolidated EPS of Rs1.14 (down 86% YoY) with no cash payout (but with 10% bonus issue).
PPL (+0.7%), OGDC (+1.8%) and POL (+2.2%) closed in the green as the international oil prices increased. HBL (-1.6%), MCB (-1.6%), FFC (-0.8%), HUBC (-0.4%), UBL (-1.0%), BAHL (-0.2%) and DAWH (-0.05%) were top scrip to cumulatively contribute -93 points to the negative closing.
Traded value stood at US$26 million, down 5 percent and volume stood at 153 million shares, up 6 percent. Furthermore, major contribution to total market volume came from UNITYR1 (-1.2%), WTL (+2.7%), FCCL (+4.5%), KEL (-0.8%) and UNITY (-0.9%).
An equity analyst Danish Ladhani expects market to remain range bound. He recommends investors to stay cautious in the short run ahead of MSCI rebalancing and IMF updates.